Autotrader/Yoshimura Suzuki’s Weston Peick has been dealing with torn tendons in his hand all summer, but he’s continued to race through the pain and is currently sixth in 450 points. But his season will end a round early, as the team announced today that Peick has elected to undergo surgery on Tuesday and will miss the season finale of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship at Ironman on Saturday.
“Budds Creek was the last round for me, because of my hand injury,” Peick said in a team statement. “The race didn’t go as well as I wanted it to. I didn’t get the best start in the first moto, but I worked my way up. The track was hard pack and bumpy, which took a toll on my hand. Honestly, it was one of my worst weekends for my hand issue. We made some changes to the bike for moto two, and they also prepped some of the track that was pretty gnarly rough. I got off to a sixth-place start and held there for half the race. I’m obviously not stoked, but given my hand situation, to pull off a top ten is good in my books. I am getting surgery on Tuesday to get my hand fixed. At this point I’m not sure how long I’ll be off the bike.”
“Weston Peick had his toughest race with his hand, but he knocked it out with a good second moto for how bad his hand is,” said team manager Jeremy Albrecht. “It keeps getting worse, so now’s a good time to get it fixed.”
Peick is likely to lose sixth in points this weekend, as he currently holds a slim nine-point advantage over former JGR rider Phil Nicoletti. Benny Bloss is eighth in points, 13 back of Peick entering the weekend.
Peick is not in danger of falling outside the top ten in points, as ninth place Kyle Cunningham is 132 points back.
The team is already without Justin Bogle, who underwent surgery to repair a damaged ulnar nerve in his upper right arm in early August. Justin Hill also missed Budds Creek due to a knee injury. Hill said last week that he hopes to race this weekend.
