Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Colin Edwards to rest as substitute Josh Hayes to race at Valencia – MotoGP
American Superbike Champion for 2011, Josh Hayes has been called in as substitute for the injured Colin Edwards.
Hayes will be racing aboard the Tech3 M1 during the MotoGP season’s final event at Valencia.
Edwards was injured during the Malaysian Grand Prix, when he hit Marco Simoncelli of Honda Gresini during the second lap. Ducati Team’s Valentino Rossi was also involved in the action but he escaped any injury.
The Italian died in the crash and the Texan sustained dislocated shoulder with torn cartilage on his left shoulder bone. After a detailed check up, doctors have decided to operate his shoulder to fix his cartilage.
This would have been Edwards’ last outing with the Tech3 squad, calling it an end to his long racing stint with Yamaha.
Texas Tornado will race with Forward Racing in the 2012 MotoGP season. He will be riding a Suter chassis, powered by a BMW 1000cc engine.
The American Superbike Championship winner has collected his second consecutive title for Yamaha with Monster Energy Graves Yamaha Team. In the season’s final event at New Jersey, he claimed for the championship.
In order to celebrate his win, Hayes planned to test ride the YSR-M1 at Valencia during the post-race test session.
His appearance in the post race test was arranged by Yamaha US and Monster Energy in order to grace him for his effort in the American Superbike season.
Now he will be riding for a complete race weekend along Cal Crutchlow at the Ricardo Tormo circuit, Valencia.
On the other side Yamaha factory team is also looking to arrange a rider who could race in place of Jorge Lorenzo. The Spaniard is still recovering from the operation he underwent to fix his hand injuries.
Lorenzo lost his finger-tip and damaged other fingers during a crash in the qualifying round at Phillip Island.
At Sepang, Yamaha’s test rider Katsuyuki Nakasuga was called in to race for Lorenzo, but he could not manage to improve in the field.
Now Yamaha needs two riders and more than a test rider. Hayes has been confirmed in place for Edwards and one other rider is needed before the Valencia race weekend approaches.
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