Watts Update

| June 20, 2002

Former GNCC champ Shane Watts, who has sat out the first few rounds of the 2002 season due to a wrist injury incurred in an off-season supercross accident, recently sent the following (slightly edited) note to his sponsors and the press:

G’day mates,

This [darned] wrist is really starting to [bother] me. Yep, it is a lot worse than what I thought and expected it to be. Yesterday I went and again saw my specialist (same guy that operated on Rick Johnson’s wrist) down here in Orlando, Florida, where I’ve been staying, and he says I’m not ready to race yet. And he’s right, ’cause I went out a few times on the bike this week, and I can only last a total of 25 minutes at 75-percent speed each day.

The bone’s pretty much healed, but the problem I have is that the tendons that run through my wrist are still very swollen and thus are causing me to experience pain and complications almost indentical to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Because of this, I have extreme difficulty using my fingers to hang onto and control the motorcycle. He says that all I can do is sit tight and rest it, and wait for the swelling to subside. [Darn], I’m sick of waiting, though. It’s [bothering] me big time.

So apart from that, I’m just going to the gym twice a day for an hour-and-a-half session each time (I hate that [darned] Stairmaster more than my wrist!), just concentrating and focusing on getting back out on the track. Plus, most days I also go mountain biking, play tennis, and have sex (the best training possible, don’t you think?). So, this is the fittest I have been for years, and it’s really making me aggitated that I can’t go and utilize it out on the track.

From now until the Loretta Lynn GNCC (April 21), I’m gonna try and keep it immobilized and keep on icing it down so as to hopefully reduce some or all of the tendon-swelling. If my wrist is good enough, I plan to gear up to race at Loretta’s for the victory. Here’s hoping.

Catch you later,

Wattsy

By Shane Watts