From a press release:

Former WSMC 750 Class champion and AMA racer John Pearson is recovering from a broken collarbone suffered September 20th during a practice day at Eastern Creek Raceway in New South Wales, Australia.

John underwent surgery at the Sports Injury Center in Sydney, where the collarbone, which was broken in six places, was plated, screwed and wired together. The fracture was so severe that it required a bone graft from John’s hip to aid in healing.

Pearson is currently working in Sydney for the Royal Australian Navy as part of an exchange program with the United States Navy. He had his Suzuki GSX-R750 Superbike shipped over and plans on competing in the Australian Superbike series during his 2 year tour of duty.

“I was passing this local racer around the outside of turn one and he just stood his bike up and rammed into my rear wheel, I guess I spooked him or something,” said Pearson.

“I stood the bike up and took to the grass run-off area, but turn one is a really fast corner and before I could get the bike slowed down the front end tucked, and down I went. Fortunately this happened at the end of the race season here and the new series doesn’t start up again for several months. I was in a sling for about 2 weeks, but it’s healing really fast and I have already started back training and should be back on the bike in the next week or so.”

Pearson is sponsored by Maxima Racing Oils, Lee’s Cycle Racing, Dunlop, GPR Stabilizers, Moto-Heaven.com, Fox Shox, and Intuitive Race Products.