Austin Stroupe Injury Update

Jean Turner | April 14, 2010

It was certainly a frustrating way to end a promising season for Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Austin Stroupe. The AMA Supercross Lites East rider was gunning for the championship and right on the heels of his former Pro Circuit Kawasaki teammate, Christophe Pourcel coming into round seven of the eight-round series. But his season took a turn for the worse in Houston, Texas, where a practice crash sent Stroupe off the track on the Asterisk Mule.

Soon after, word circulated in the pits that Stroupe had suffered a shoulder injury in the practice crash in which he tangled with Kyle Cunningham. The x-rays taken at the Asterisk Mobile Medical Unit weren’t conclusive, but one thing was for sure: Stroupe would not be racing that night. He was only eight points down from Pourcel in the championship with two rounds remaining – a championship in which he had managed to show remarkable consistency – but Stroupe watched his title hopes slip through his fingers as he headed to the hospital instead of the starting line in Houston.

Since then, Stroupe has returned home to see his doctor in North Carolina. According to Suzuki, the injury is a third-degree shoulder separation. The good news is that the injury will not require surgery. Stroupe has begun physical therapy and will be re-evaluated in three weeks.

Stroupe’s 2010 Supercross season is over, and obviously, the goal is to be healthy by the start of the AMA Motocross Championship, where Stroupe will once again make a bid for the Lites title. But the team won’t know when exactly Stroupe will be back in commission until he has another evaluation in three weeks.