AMA Pro Daytona SportBike racer Melissa Paris will miss the final round of the 2010 AMA Pro season after breaking her right lower leg Tuesday while riding on a motocross track at Miller Motorsports Park.
“We were filming a thing for Yamaha with [2010 AMA WMX Champion] Jessica Patterson,” Paris told Roadracingworld.com Wednesday. “I was supposed to be teaching her how to road race, and she was supposed to be teaching me how to ride motocross.
“I was going into a right-hander [on the motocross track], and when I put my foot down it got caught in a rut. I didn’t crash, but it twisted my leg outwards and snapped both bones [tibia and fibula]. Same leg, re-broke it.”
Paris originally broke her right lower leg bones in a crash during an AMA Pro Daytona Sportbike race at VIRginia International Raceway at the end of the 2009 season.
After a lengthy recovery, the popular Californian resumed racing at the start of the 2010 season but suffered a setback mid-year when it was discovered that the rod used to set one of her fractures was sticking out the top of her tibia, causing damage to her patella tendon and pain that hurt her on-track performance.
She had surgery to remove the rod and repair the tendon damage in June at the hands of Dr. Peter J. Millett at the Steadman Clinic, in Vail, Colorado, and was on the road to regaining full fitness and full speed when she re-broke her leg on Tuesday.
“Dr. Millet did surgery on it again today,” said Paris. “He used a smaller rod and smaller hardware this time, so I shouldn’t have any problems like I had this year.
“Now there’s no way remotely possible for me to ride at Barber. I was looking forward to racing there. I did the WERA races [at Barber] and was really wanting to finish the season strong. This is not exactly how I envisioned it ending. I’m just heartbroken that I will miss the last race of the season.”
Paris hopes that she will be released from the Steadman Clinic by Friday, so she can fly to Alabama and support her husband, Graves Motorsports Yamaha’s Josh Hayes, as he attempts to win the 2010 AMA Pro National Guard Superbike Championship.