Paul DeCouto is now in a race to regain fitness ahead of next month’s Championship Cup Series (CCS) Southeast and Mid Atlantic Championship Series at Carolina Motorsports Park.The Expert 1000cc motorcycle racer injured himself in a mishap that occurred towards the end of last Saturday’s third race of the WERA Nationals at Roebling Road in Savannah, Georgia.DeCouto injured his shoulder and ankle after being forced off the track to avoid colliding with KWS Motorsports Expert rider Luie Zendejas as both men battled for a podium finish.“We were side-by-side in turn four on the last lap when Luie lost control of his GSXR 1000,” he recalled. “I was going to pass but he lost control of his bike and stood it up mid-corner.“I was on the outside, leaving me no choice but to run off track. Being as Roebling Road has minimal run off, I scrubbed off as much speed as possible on the grass and purposely laid my bike down in the sand pit.“The bike received minimal damage and I sprained my ankle and re-injured an old shoulder injury.“Luie displayed good sportsmanship by apologising to me and he admitted that he lost control of his bike. He also offered to assist me in getting my bike back in order, even though the rules of racing state we waive the right to assign responsibility to anyone else but ourselves in the unfortunate event of a crash. This was a great gesture on his behalf.”After returning home DeCouto underwent X Rays that revealed no bone fractures.The veteran athlete was invited to compete at Roebling Road last weekend as reward after accumulating five podium finishes at the same venue the previous week.Prior to Sunday’s mishap, DeCouto shaved one second off his previous fastest lap time (1:13) in the first race which saw him place fifth.He then went one better with a fourth-place finish in the second race before his fortunes took a turn for the worse.The father of one hopes to be back in training (cycling and running) within the next week once the swelling in his ankle goes down.