Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

The list of AMA riders with injuries at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) continues to grow.

Erion Honda’s Jake Zemke highsided in Saturday morning Superbike practice and suffered injuries to his left hand, making it difficult for him to use his clutch lever.

Team Valvoline EMGO Suzuki’s Vincent Haskovec crashed without injury Friday, but he took Triangle Cycles Yamaha’s Larry Pegram with him in his fall. Pegram suffered undiagnosed injuries to his left wrist but continues to ride.

Hooters Suzuki’s John Haner didn’t crash, but a violent tank slapper in practice injured his left wrist badly enough for him to pull out of this weekend’s races.

NASTI Motorsports’ Lee Acree did not crash, but he hit his right knee on a section of curbing so hard that he went into Danville, Virginia for X-rays. No fractures were found, but Acree will only ride in Supersport and not Superbike this weekend, as a result of his injury.

Hal’s Performance Buell’s Mike Ciccotto is riding with a broken right hand, suffered in a crash during the AMA event at Road Atlanta in September. He says he has problems with the hand after two laps of riding but will try to race.

Kawasaki’s Tommy Hayden and Corona Extra Suzuki’s Jimmy Moore crashed without injury Saturday at VIR.


More, from a press release issued by Proforma:

HANER OUT OF ACTION IN VIRGINIA

John Haner was forced to withdraw from the weekend’s Superstock and Superbike events at the final round of the AMA Chevrolet Superbike
Championship at Virginia International Raceway. John suffered a violent head shake on his Hooters Suzuki GSX-R1000 during Friday’s promoter practice, pulling muscles and tendons in his left wrist that caused severe pain while riding and downshifting.

“I had a violent headshake, had the bars almost jerked out of my hands and I almost fell off the bike going down the straightaway,” said John, who had hopes of repeating his stellar performances at Road Atlanta a month before.
“This happened on Friday, mid-afternoon, and toward the end of the day my wrist started hurting a little bit. I didn’t think too much of it, thought it was just a little strained, no big deal. I went to the pharmacy and got a wrist brace, thought it would be okay. I got on the bike this morning, and it started to hurt so bad that I was dreading coming into the corners
with the clutch. It was like somebody was stabbing me in the arm. I could make a warm-up lap and two hard laps and after that it started to mess with my mind, where I was just dreading getting off the gas, like you didn’t even want to shut off the throttle to pull the clutch in and start making your downshifts. I think it’s the right decision to pull out this weekend. I
could go out and battle for last place, or something worse could happen where the bars get jerked out of my hand and I couldn’t hold on.”