Garrett Gerloff says he is fully recovered from the injuries he sustained in a crash at Round Three of the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship at VIRginia International Raceway and is itching to get back in action on his Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing YZF-R1 Superbike this coming weekend at Road America.
Gerloff highsided on the first lap of MotoAmerica Superbike Race One May 5 at VIR, and although Gerloff escaped being hit by other riders in the tightly bunched pack, the young Texan was coughing up blood when safety workers reached him trackside.
Gerloff was initially transported by ambulance to a hospital in nearby Danville, Virginia, but his injuries required him to later be transported to Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina.
“They did a couple of MRIs,” Gerloff told Roadracingworld.com Thursday at Road America, “and they were like, ‘Hey, there’s an area in your chest that’s growing. Whether it’s fluid or blood or air we don’t really know, but all of those are bad.’ They did two MRIs over some time to see if it was growing or not, and it was. So they said they needed to get me to a trauma center, and the closest one was an hour away.”
Diagnosed with a pulmonary contusion, Gerloff was held overnight at Duke University Hospital for observation and released the following day, Sunday, May 6. Since then, Gerloff said he has returned to his normal training program and has even taken a trip to the MotoGP race at Le Mans.
“I’m doing good, way better than I was,” said Gerloff. “I told people I felt decent in the hospital, decent enough to ride, but I had some bleeding around my lungs and in my lungs a little bit. So they wouldn’t let me ride, and honestly I didn’t want to ride with that because it sounded pretty bad and I didn’t want to do anymore damage.
“But my body absorbed it all and everything was good after a few days. They said I could ride my bicycle and stuff a week after, and that’s what I was doing. Then I got to go to the French GP. It was a HJC-sponsored event, and I went to support HJC and check out a Grand Prix. I feel good now.”