American Brandon Paasch broke his left arm during the penultimate round of the 2018 British Motostar series, a support class of the British Superbike Championship, September 16 at Oulton Park, and complications may prevent the 17-year-old New Jersey resident from his planned return to action at the ninth and final round of the series October 12-14 at Brands Hatch.
“I just got done at the doctor’s [office] and it didn’t really go the way I wanted it to,” Paasch told Roadracingworld.com Thursday. “The bone moved in the old cast and started healing in the wrong spot. So they took the cast off, rebroke, reset it, and put a new cast on today. So I’m basically back to square one.”
Paasch, who currently sits fifth in the British Motorstar Championship point standings, suffered fractures to both bones in his left forearm when a promising weekend at Oulton Park went sideways.
Riding his Microlise Cresswell Racing Mahindra Moto3 racebike, Paasch earned his first pole position of the season and got fourth, a fraction of a second behind third place, in Race One.
“In Sunday morning warm-up I went into Turn One literally on the first lap and the ground looked dry,” said Paasch, “but as soon as I touched the throttle it went full [-lock] sideways and launched me.”
Paasch said doctors did X-rays, set his fractures and casted his arm the same day at Oulton Park. Doctors then advised him to expect a recovery time of at least four to six weeks, which gave him hope of competing in the season finale four weeks later.
“We came back to the doctor today and the bone had moved,” said Paasch. “My arm was swollen [when they casted it at Oulton Park] so the cast was tight but when the swelling went down the cast was loose. We think [the bones] moved when the swelling went down.
“[My doctor here is] saying possibly [as little as] four weeks to heal, but the race is in two weeks. So it’s looking like I’m going to miss the race. When they rebroke it today it took them a few times pushing on it to snap it. The doctor said, ‘Man, it really healed up a lot in 10 days.’ I was pretty mad about that because it would have been fine for Brands if he didn’t have to break it again today. That pissed me off a little bit.”
Paasch said in spite of the bad news he is still going to try to ride in the 2018 season finale at Brands Hatch.
“I’m going to give it a shot,” said Paasch. “I want to at least try. I’m going to be there anyway, so I’m at least going to try. If I pass the physical I’m going to try to ride. If it feels alright and I still feel safe and capable of running at the front them we’ll race. If it doesn’t feel 80% or better there’s no point in risking further injury.”