Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Interview by David Swarts

In his first interview since his crash on Daytona’s banking during the AMA Supersport race, Yamaha’s Aaron Gobert spoke through pain and the effects of pain medication to tell Roadracingworld.com about his current condition and about coming home.

RW: How’re you doing?

AG: “I just got two new plaster casts on my feet. So I’m just laying here waiting to go home tomorrow (March 22).”

RW: How’s your shoulder?

AG: “I had to get a skin graft, off the thigh muscle, and get that put up onto the shoulder. It’s sort of on the top, sort of across the back of the neck, you know what I mean? I had the leather burn all the way across my shoulder to the side of my neck, and the bit that was so bad that it wouldn’t heal was around the side of my neck.”

RW: Are they going to have to re-construct your shoulder?

AG: “Nah, hopefully, it’s gonna be alright. They said that it got compressed, the socket got compressed. It seems it should be alright. They keep saying that it won’t need anything. They can never really predict what motorcycle racing does to them.”

RW: Didn’t you break both your shoulders few years back motocrossing?

AG: “Yeah, I already had all of the reconstruction done to them both. That’s what they were worried about. It got squashed and maybe it could turn the operation.”

RW: So how long are you going to be out?

AG: “They’re talking about four to six weeks for my legs and then about two or three weeks more with my shoulder, because the skin graft is going to be about a week, and it’s broken as well. So I have to wait and bed it in slowly, don’t do anything too quick.”

RW: We heard Anthony say that you were trying to get off the pain medicine. Is that true?

AG: “Yeah, I slowed down a little bit on that sh*t, trying to get off it a bit. I wanted to start feeling it out, see what it was actually feeling like, you know? See how much pain I was really in. It’s been pretty hard because my back and all my ribs are broken. You lay around all day, then your back starts hurting. You have to get out of bed to stop that from hurting. Then that starts off a chain reaction of everything hurting. So there’s no real way around it, the pain. I guess it’s just a matter of time. I think I just have to hang on, hold out and wait a little longer.”

RW: Did you see the tape of the crash yet?

AG: “I’ve seen a bit of a tape now, but I don’t remember anything from like two days before the race. I don’t remember coming here, meeting some of the nurses and ladies working here in my ward. I don’t remember any of that. It’s pretty funny. I missed out on a whole week of sh*t.”

RW: What did you see on the tape?

AG: “It didn’t look as bad as what it turned out to be. I guess the tape I saw didn’t have that good of footage. I guess Anthony run me over pretty good, too. He was sort of under the thought that he didn’t run me over, but then when he saw it, he was like, ‘Ah sh*t! I guess I did run you over pretty good.’

“If Tommy (Hayden) run me over, it was up by my head area. He didn’t run over my whole body or anything.”

RW: Will you be flying in an air ambulance?

AG: “I’m just going in an ordinary (commercial) plane back to Ontario (Airport). I’m pretty good (on sitting up) now, not so as bad as I was. I’ve got the prescription. So I’ll just take ‘em all and get ready for the trip.”