Image: Jeremy Hammer (Foremost Media).

The opening round of the 2017 Australian Supercross Championship didn’t go as planned for the Yamalube Yamaha Racing Team, as the three-man squad was reduced to one by the night show in Jimboomba, Queensland.

Experienced SX2 contender Wade Hunter suffered a nasty crash in the opening practice session, and although he was later cleared of injury that night, further scans revealed he suffered a compressed vertebrae, ultimately ending his season with an unclear recovery time.

As for teammate Cody Dyce, his supercross debut came to a premature end in the qualifying session when a costly mistake saw him injure his foot, which was later determined to be a crack in his ankle, ending his 2017 campaign also.

“Wade is pretty beat up and sore at the moment,” Yamalube Yamaha Racing team manager Scott Bishop told MotoOnline.com.au. “He had that crash where he flew over the berm and he was obviously clipped by the bike when he came back down.

“He went to hospital and they pretty much scanned and cleared him of anything that Saturday night, but scans just came through confirming he’s compressed a vertebrae.

“Cody hurt his ankle in the qualifying session, he had x-rays yesterday which revealed a small crack in his ankle. He’s now in a moonboot for the next six weeks, so that’s pretty much him done for the supercross season – we’ve got seven weeks to go, so there’s no point trying to rush him back for the last one.”

The team’s sole effort for the night Cooper Pozniak lodged a 12th place result in the 15-lap main event after a crash on lap one hindered his overall performance, and despite Bishop revealing he expects better of the number 17, he believes it’s a result to build off in the coming rounds.

“We think Cooper is better than that, he had a small crash in the main and he acknowledges he probably needs a bit more of a track position – we certainly think he’s capable of a seventh to 10th place finish,” he continued. “Given he had a crash on the first lap, hopefully we can build off that now and start wracking up some top 10s throughout the next few rounds.”

At this stage it is understood the team will not source a replacement rider as the series heads to Bacchus Marsh in Victoria on Saturday, 14 October.