Photo by: Hoppenworld

Man, if you look up cursed-career in the dictionary, you will probably find a description of Monster/Kawasaki’s Wil Hahn‘s racing career and surprisingly a picture of the former Eastern Regional 250SX Champion’s smiling face. The twenty-seven year-old professional Supercross and motocross rider originally from Wichita, Kansas has been the epitome of the saying “one step forward and two steps backwards.” Throughout his veteran racing career, the #54 has taken numerous physical beatdowns only to make one incredible comeback after the next—only to get injured again.

Well, here we are again. Eight races into his return to Supercross, Wil Hahn is back on the couch waiting for the swelling to go down so doctors can once again cut him open and repair his war wounds. This time, through no fault of his own—wrong place, wrong time—Wil is at home with a broken collarbone, broken scapula and a torn labrum in the same shoulder.

Video of the crash in Atlanta

First reports had Wil only breaking his collarbone, but we should have known better; things are never just as simple as a broken collarbone with Wilbur. The collarbone break is traditionally a quick plate and back to the races in three-four weeks, broken scapula can be six months of recovery and a torn labrum is surgery, six or more weeks for the labrum to reattach itself to the rim of the bone and another six or more weeks to get it back to race strength. We were hoping to see Wil’s smiling face back at the opener of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, but with this injury that hope is a huge stretch.

Luckily for Wil, the only thing more amazing than his inability to stay healthy has been his ability to stay positive and continuously persevere through adversity. A lot of Wil’s ability to come back every time, has been the unwavering support he has received from his teams. Wil’s positive attitude is infectious, and time and time again, because of that attitude combined with his obvious potential, his factory bikes have always been prepped and ready for him upon his return to riding.


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This is what happened after the GEICO/Honda team stuck with Wil through thick and thin. This was only 2 1/2 years ago, and even on that day, Wil rode the final main event of the year with a broken wrist. Photo by: Hoppenworld

No team has ever dropped Wil while he was on the couch recovering, but no matter how much Kawasaki likes having Wilbur in the rig, it may be harder than ever to justify keeping him in on board for ’17. Wil is in the last year of his two year deal with Monster/Kawasaki, and there’s a huge list of riders with contracts up at the end of ’16. That is the reality, but it’s not something Wil can do anything about at the moment.

No matter what happens, we have a strange feeling Wil will be back at the races giving it all he has, hanging out with fans and trying to represent the sponsors he does have with class and style. You can beat the guy down, but you cannot break his spirit. We wish Wil a speedy recovery and can’t wait to see him get back after it when he gets healthy.

You can check out Wil’s Instagram updates below

Author

Dan Lamb is a 12+ year journalist and the owner of MotoXAddicts.