Team MotoworldRacing.com/Suzuki’s Andrew Short was injured in a 250cc semi race accident at the Pontiac (Mich.) Silverdome on Saturday evening. Short reports that he suffered a dislocated wrist (left) and broken scaphoid bone (wrist) that will require surgery and a pin to fix, along with a severely bruised heel (right).
“I think I was pretty lucky, actually,” said Short of the accident. “I haven’t had a hard crash in a long time, so I was kinda due. And it could have been a lot worse. Really, just everything’s sore right now.”
Blitzing the whoop section to get past a slower rider, Short clipped a Tuff Block and lost control of his RM 250, railed out of the whoops, launched off a left hand bermed turn and shot skyward out over the concrete stadium floor.
“After I hit that Tuff Block I had to stay on the gas or I’d have lost it in the whoops,” explained Short. “Next thing I know I’m about 20 feet off the ground, rolling the windows down and heading for the concrete.”
Short said that he tried to stay with the bike, but his momentum was heading left (in the same direction of the turn) while the bike kicked off to the right. “No chance but to eject,” he said.
After Dr. Bodnar with the Asterisk Mobile Medical Unit checked Short out, he got up smiling, waiving to the crowd. Back in the pits before heading out to the hospital, Short put a veteran perspective on what he admitted was a rookie mistake. “I tried to push the issue a bit too much when I should have backed off,” he said.
The initial prognosis, according to Short, should have him on the sidelines for an indefinite amount of time, with an additional two weeks of on-bike training before he returns. Short will have surgery today to repair his wrist. More will be known on his comeback timetable in the weeks to come.