Barcia Digs Deep, but Will Miss Time with Knee Injuries

After continuing to experience trouble with a pair of knee injuries that have largely affected his outdoor campaign, Bam Bam has opted to sit out the next block of races – aiming to return for his home race at Unadilla in August – in order to allow his injuries to recover properly. Barcia is confident that when he returns onboard the GASGAS MC 450F Factory Edition, he will be even more competitive into the final stages of the series.

Justin Barcia: "Today was an eventful day, a lot of stuff going on! I qualified P7, which was pretty good, and the motos were decent for where we're at. I was sixth in Moto 1 and then had a first turn crash in the second moto, but made a hard charge to 11th. Unfortunately, I've been dealing with some knee injuries since about the week before Salt Lake City, and I've been pushing through it. One knee has a torn/sprained MCL, and my other knee had bursitis, with a little bit of a tear in the meniscus – not too bad, nothing that requires surgery. Because of the swelling, two of my tendons finally let go at High Point, but the good thing is that technically they will just scar up and be fine. I haven't been riding during the week at all, just been trying to race on the weekends for my fans and the crew, but it's got to the point now that we have a really good bike, my riding is really good, and these knees are holding us back. We want to be better than fifth-to-eighth, so we are going to take some time off. I will still be able to train quite a bit, do PT on the knees, and see what we can do to get better. All in all, they just need some time to heal up, so the goal right now, I would say, is to come back for Unadilla. I won't miss too many races if everything works out, which I believe it will, and then we'll come back swinging!"