Newly signed Kawasaki Pedercini rider Leandro Mercado will not be taking part in the opening round of the World Superbike championship at Phillip Island, February 24th to 26th after fracturing his right radius bone while training with his supermotard.

The young Argentian rider who won last month’s 500 Milhas Interlagos endurance race has already undergone surgery to fix the fracture in order to speed up the healing process and will start rehabilitation next week, and is expected to return to action for the second round of the season that takes place at the end of March at Imola.

Pedercini has already lined up Bryan Staring as Mercado’s replacement rider. The Australian is in his second year of Superstock FIM 1000 Cup championship with the Italian team and last season Pedercini had him wildcard in WSBKs always at Phillip Island, where he picked up one point.

Leandro “Tati” Mercado: “I’m really disappointed because I won’t be able to participate at the Phillip Island races as it could be my Superbike debut. I was eager to compete in Australia hoping to obtain good results. I know the whole team worked extremely hard to prepare my bike for the first appointment of the season and now I’m forced to miss out on the race. Starting from next week, with the help of my doctors, I’ll start intensive rehabilitation to make sure that I’ll be in top condition for the second race in Imola”.

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