Bobby Fong, the rider currently second in the MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 Championship point standings, had surgery at the hands of Dr. Maury Harwood May 20 in Los Gatos, California, to correct a condition commonly referred to as “arm pump.”

“I’ve been dealing with arm pump issues my whole racing career,” Fong exclusively told Roadracingworld.com Thursday at Road America, “but on the 600cc [motorcycles] it wasn’t so bad and I could kind of ride through it.

“But now that I’m on this big bike [Quicksilver Latus Motors Racing Kawasaki ZX-10R], I get it all the time. After Sunday at VIR I was like, ‘Man, I’ve got to do something about this.’ Because I’ve been trying everything known to man to try to get rid of arm pump — riding more, always staying hydrated, stretching, using a forearm pump device, taking supplements, breathing more — and nothing seems to work.

“Finally, I said, ‘I’ve got to get the surgery.’ It’s so bad I can’t hold on to the bike at the end of the race. It’s affecting my results and my whole race, actually. Because I know I’m going to get the arm pump, I don’t want to push too hard at the beginning and then get it sooner.

“So now I’m taking a different approach and hopefully this [surgery] works and I can push 100% through the whole race, because that’s [not] what I’ve been able to do.”

Fong has extensive tattoo work on his arms, especially his right arm, so Dr. Harwood took extra care to make his surgical incisions match the existing lines of Fong’s tattoo.