By David Swarts

Synergy Racing Technologies’ Matt Wait was injured in a one-bike incident in Daytona’s high-speed chicane during Sunday morning’s warm-up for the Formula USA Unlimited Superbike final. Wait was on his out lap on his Honda CBR929RR when he crashed and suffered a broken left upper arm and concussion. The crash caused the session to be red-flagged and it began to rain heavily as riders waited to restart the session. Officials delayed the restart, declared the lunch break, held a riders’ meeting and then restarted the session more than an hour after the red flag.

Several riders saw Wait and his motorcycle laying close to the wall on the riders’ left leading them to belive that Wait had hit an unprotected wall in the accident. According to Roger Lyle, Formula USA’s National Safety Director, those beliefs were false.

“From eye witness reports of corner workers at the scene,” started Lyle, “Wait clipped the inside grass and curbing on the right entering the Chicane. He got out of shape and crashed on the track and slid off. Wait never came in contact with any wall at any time. He was transported directly to Halifax hospital with a broken arm and concussion.”

In response to rider concerns raised by the incident, F-USA officials immediately relocated over 150 extra haybales to the chicane area. The bales came from the front straight infield Supercross course. Officials told riders at the riders’ meeting that the entire area was covered with haybales.

Just prior to the crash, in dry Sportbike practice, Wait had bettered his Sportbike qualifying time by nearly one full second.

Wait has suffered several severe injuries in recent years.