Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Racer Geoff May’s visit to Mosport for the Formula USA/Canadian Superbike races last weekend turned into a nightmare when his tuner, Chris “Hippy” Birkley, crashed his skateboard in the pits Wednesday night before the race and shattered his pelvis.

Birkley was flown from Ontario, Canada back to Georgia in an air ambulance after spending two largely unattended days and nights on a gurney in the hallway of a Canadian hospital; he underwent surgery Monday at Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville, Georgia, where doctors used six plates and 13 screws to put his pelvis back together.

With Birkley out of action, that left May to handle all his tuning, set-up and maintence as well as normal riding duties such as learning the track.

May qualified ninth for Formula USA and eighth for Canadian Superbike, but finished 13th in both Formula USA races on Saturday after a well-meaning suspension guru’s last-minute adjustments made the bike close to impossible to ride. On Sunday, May put his suspension settings back to where they were prior to his encounter with the suspension guru, went 2.5 seconds a lap faster and finished fifth in the Canadian Superbike race.

“The lesson I learned is to never second-guess myself and never make any last-minute changes without testing,” said May, who runs an Embry Motorsports Suzuki GSX-R1000 and is sponsored by roadracingworld.com.