Ben Spies to Miss Jerez MotoGP Round

Pramac Racing announced Ben Spies will sit out the Jerez round of the 2013 MotoGP World Championship after suffering from chest pains at last weekend’s Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

Spies cut short his 2012 season, missing the final two rounds to go under the knife last October to repair  ligaments in his right shoulder. During the off-season Spies signed with the Pramac Ducati satellite team and worked towards coming back for the 2013 season opener at Qatar. Spies finished 10th at Qatar though he felt some shoulder strain after crashing during a qualifying session.

Three weeks later at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Spies felt some chest pain during the morning warm-up session. The pain prevented Spies from doing better than his 13th-place finish.

After the Austin race, Spies spoke with his medical staff which advised him to take three weeks off to rehab his back and pectoral muscles which had been straining to compensate for his shoulder.

If he sticks to that timetable, Spies should be ready to return for the  May 19 round at Le Mans in France. Pramac has not announced a replacement rider for Jerez.

[Source: Pramac]

By Dennis Chung