Paul Carruthers | May 12, 2009
In the aftermath of Sunday’s race one Monza mayhem, three riders have been ruled out of this weekend’s South African round of the World Superbike Championship – Max Neukirchner, Troy Corser and Brandan Roberts – with all three being replaced by their teams.Though Corser didn’t suffer any broken bones in the melee, he has opted to sit out the Kyalami round to ready himself for the U.S. round of the series at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah, May 30-31. The former World and AMA Superbike Champion will be replaced by fellow Australian Steve Martin on the factory BMW. Martin is BMW Motorrad Motorsport’s official test rider.”After the races in Monza on Sunday, Troy and the team sat down together and jointly made the decision that it would be better for him to sit out Kyalami and get fit for USA,” BMW team director Berti Hauser said today in a team release. “Troy suffered a horrific crash at the start of the first race in Monza and was hit in the back of the neck and head by another bike. He then had a high-speed tumble in the restart and was probably a little dazed. He was already riding with a cracked bone in his left hand and had to have painkillers and special strapping in order just to compete in Monza. Kyalami is a very physical track, very bumpy in places, and this would’ve not have helped Troy’s hand get any better. So, with everything that happened in Monza, together with the condition of his hand, the decision was made that Troy would give Kyalami a miss.”Neukirchner, meanwhile, will be out of action much longer, the German having suffered a broken right femur and three broken bones in the lower right leg and foot. The team announced that he will be replaced by former Alstare Suzuki rider Fonsi Nieto.”Firstly, I want to wish Max [Neukirchner] all the best for a quick recovery,” Nieto said in a team release. “His crash at Monza was not his fault and he is lucky that the injuries are not worse than they are. I am very grateful to Francis Batta for giving me this opportunity to ride for the team again and I will do my best to repay his faith in me. Although I know the team, I do not know the bike because it is a completely new and different bike to last year’s model. So, I will have to learn the bike and learn the track at the same time and that is not so easy, but I will do my best for sure.”Roberts, meanwhile, will be replaced on the Guandalini Ducati team by Spaniard Gregorio Lavilla
Paul Carruthers | Editor
Paul Carruthers took over as the editor of Cycle News in 1993 after serving as associate editor since starting his career at the publication in 1985. Carruthers has covered every facet of the sport in his near-28-year tenure at America's Daily Motorcycle News Source.
