Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

American Honda’s Miguel Duhamel broke his left collarbone in a crash during the AMA Supersport race at Infineon Raceway May 4, but after recent surgery Duhamel is upbeat about his chances of racing in the next round of the AMA National series, May 17-19 at Road Atlanta.

Duhamel was racing for third on the final lap of the 600cc race when his Honda CBR600RR slid on what the veteran racer speculated was a “green” section of Infineon Raceway’s newly-added turn 9A chicane. Duhamel crashed, fell awkwardly and broke his collarbone. Remarkably, it is the first time the AMA veteran has ever broken a collarbone.

“I had surgery on Monday (May 5) with Dr. (Arthur) Ting,” Duhamel told Roadracingworld.com Wednesday. “It was really a good thing that Ting was able to get me in quickly.

“I broke the bone in three pieces. He put the puzzle back together and pinned it up. I guess that’s the new procedure for it to heal quickly.”

In the past, broken collarbones have been plated together to allow racers to return to action quickly.

Duhamel is remaining in the San Francisco bay area and under the close supervision of Dr. Ting, Sports Medicine Rehab Specialist Tuan Nguyen and “nurse Linnea” (Duhamel’s girlfriend) in order to return to race fitness more quickly.

The French-Canadian is also utilizing an ice-water pressure wrap and a bone stimulator to quicken his recovery, but the relative lack of pain is encouraging to Duhamel.

“The fact that I haven’t needed the pain medication is a good sign,” said Duhamel. “The pain has never been bad enough to take pain medicine. Even when I broke it, the pain wasn’t that bad.

“It’s totally day-by-day,” Duhamel says of his outlook. “The goal is to not miss Road Atlanta, get some points and keep an outside chance of winning the Championships alive. But I don’t want to go out and do something stupid and endanger myself or anyone else. We’ll see.”