Despite his perennially upbeat demeanor on Twitter, Chris Vermeulen’s recovery continues to progress slowly. The factory Kawasaki rider, who has yet to complete a race in the 2011 World Superbike season, will remain in Europe while teammates Joan Lascorz and Tom Sykes travel to this weekend’s race at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah.Vermeulen has been attending recent races in Europe and participating in practice and qualifying sessions, but an off at Monza tore a hole in his elbow and added to the Australian’s injuries.
Vermeulen will test for the team at Motorland Aragon early next month, with a plan to return to racing at Misano for the June 12th weekend. “It is disappointing to not race in America but my injuries are still healing. The good thing is they are improving,” said Vermeulen.
He continued, “The decision was taken with the team and Kawasaki to miss the race and concentrate on testing. That’s not only for myself to get some time under my belt away from the racing, but also to get more information about the bike.” Meanwhile, Lascorz explained that he has been testing the Kawasaki in Japan “to try some new ideas and give some feedback. I have my crew chief with me and I hope we can give good input into the development program.” He added, “Our bike is so young and has more potential than we have been able to demonstrate so far.”
With testing both in Japan and in Spain, the team is likely to see a continuation of the speed shown by the two healthy riders at least early in the weekend at Monza. Similarly, riding at Aragon will give Vermeulen not only a chance to evaluate his progress, but to learn the new circuit.
According to his personal Twitter account, Vermeulen’s recent days have been spent cycling and continuing his physical therapy in Andorra, Spain. Despite continued setbacks such as developing an infection in that injured elbow, Vermeulen said, “I should hopefully come back strong at Misano which is a track I know quite well.”
Source: Kawasaki; Photo: Pirelli
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