Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Yamaha’s Aaron Gobert will sit out the AMA Championship event at Brainerd International Raceway June 26-29 due to injuries suffered in a recent crash. But the 22-year-old Australian, who rides in Supersport and Formula Xtreme, expects to be near 100 percent fitness for the Laguna Seca AMA event July 10-13.

“It looks at this point like I’m screwed. It’s not official yet, but I’ve pretty much called Brainerd off,” said Gobert Tuesday on his way home from an examination at Dr. Arthur Ting’s Fremont, California office. The appointment was a checkup following June 9 surgery to screw and plate together bones in Gobert’s left wrist and thumb, broken in a crash during practice at Road America June 6.

“The problem is they had to put aside the tendons for the thumb, and that sort of creates a bit of tightness and tension in the thumb,” said Gobert via cell phone from the back of a taxi on the way to the San Jose, California airport. “He (Dr. Ting) said if I ride at Brainerd, I will more than likely displace the bone, and he’ll have to operate again and put them back into alignment, and I’ll miss Laguna and the rest of the year. I was going to try to ride at Brainerd, but I’ll probably have to miss it.

“I’m not worried about it,” said Gobert. “I’m bummed out that I can’t ride, because I really was looking at the (Supersport) Championship this year, even though I was consistently finishing in third place.

“I’m still looking at the Championship because there are still five races to go, and that’s a long time. And the points are tight, and I was getting better every weekend. I feel like I had just taken it to a new level, you know, at Pikes Peak? I feel that I lifted up a level, then this happened. I’m not disappointed, because I’m pretty confident when I come back it won’t take a race to get back into it. As long as I don’t have a wrist problem. As long as I can use the clutch, I’ll be alright.”

Gobert has finished on the AMA Supersport podium three times in 2003 and even though he didn’t race at Road America is still third in the Championship standings. Gobert’s deficit to Supersport points leader Jamie Hacking grew from 12 to 39 points at Road America, however.

On his way out of Dr. Ting’s office, Gobert said he was introduced to Suzuki MotoGP racer Kenny Lee Roberts, who was there “to get his shoulder looked at.”

On Wednesday, Kneedraggers.com Yamaha’s Matt Wait has an appointment to have Dr. Ting examine his right scapula, which was broken in two places by a crash last Saturday, during qualifying for Formula USA races at New Hampshire International Speedway.