Eric Wood of Team Hooters HelpMeRide.com Suzuki is recovering from arthroscopic surgery performed on Tuesday July 25th on his left knee. Wood had scheduled the surgery prior to the past AMA Superbike round at Laguna Seca to remove a piece of cartilage that was bothering his knee. Unfortunately, Wood compounded the original injury when he fell during qualifying for the Superbike final at Laguna.
Wood explained, “I was trying to learn a new setup during Saturday qualifying, we only got 8 laps on Friday and the bike needed some major changes to work on the new track surface. We were making progress and dropping time, when I tried using some of the entrance curbing entering the corkscrew on the left side – I had noticed some tire marks there on previous laps and thought I may be able to straighten out the entrance a bit. When I hit the curbing I lost the front and threw my left foot off the peg. In the process of gathering the bike back up I got my foot sucked into the back tire and jammed between the tire and the swingarm. The tire then locked up and dragged me down the hill – not a lot of fun.”
The crash gave him a hairline fracture in his left foot and a small ACL tear in his left knee. He rode the race a few hours later and soldiered on to 18th place, gathering some valuable championship points. Wood hopes to be ready for the next round of the AMA Superbike series at Mid Ohio.