Image: Jeremy Hammer (Foremost Media).

An injured wrist sustained at Bacchus Marsh’s second round of the Australian Supercross Championship is hindering Gavin Faith’s bid for a third SX2 crown, as the injury denies the American crucial bike time between rounds.

The Penrite Honda Racing rider pushed through the pain last weekend at Virginia’s third round in South Australia, recovering from a poor start to salvage fifth, allowing him to maintain the points lead with a slender two-point advantage.

Faith said the biggest issue is the lack of bike time, revealing he plans to rest over the next two weeks in order for the injury to heal.

“It’s hurting a little bit, the hard part is I haven’t been riding in between [rounds],” Faith explained to MotoOnline.com.au. “I’m not quite as sharp on the bike, it definitely hurts when I ride – the combination of it affects me a little bit.

“I was pretty bummed out with last weekend, I feel like I should’ve done better even with the situation. I’ll probably rest and get the wrist healed up, I don’t really have any intentions of riding in the next couple of week. Going into Sydney, I think I have a bit of an advantage being Arenacross champion, and the tighter arena is pretty similar to arenacross actually.”

The Monster Energy AUS-X Open will play host to round four and five of the championship at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena on 11-12 November, before the championship wraps up one week later at Jimboomba in Queensland.