October 2004 - Race #5 - - First Expert Race Report

October 16, 2004 - WSMC 750cc Super Stock

I got kicked out of Novice. I was really hoping to get more seat time in before having to race against the experts. It just doesn’t seem prudent to have my 5th time racing to be against people who’ve been racing longer than I’ve been alive!

Everything seemed to be going well. Huge thanks to my marketing partners, Dyno-Dudes Performance, for transferring all the parts from Sevruc back onto Toro so that I had a bike to ride for this race. We had to get new plastics, my Sharkskinz were trashed and we decided to go with Catalyst. They were a good fit.

I realized quickly in my race that although I was always in the top 4 in Novice, I was mid-pack for Expert. By this time, my best lap time was only 1:28:40 and people were still passing me as if I were standing still. I followed a pack into the first turn and quickly realized that this Expert Race was a whole different animal then the Novice Races I’ve been attending. There was a new scent in the air…did I smell fresh blood? The competition in this race was on a whole other level. There were 4 guys in front of me going into T1 and they were all battling for that first turn. I got a really bad feeling and backed off. I really didn’t want anything to do with that. I could tell that one of them was going to go down soon and I didn’t want to go down again, just eleven days after my get-off at SOW. I backed off and then realized that my race was the second wave of another race…and those racers were going to lap me soon…so I sped up again. I had a very, very bad feeling and really wanted to exit the race. This is not like me, I’m not a quitter…but the feeling I was getting – if I could have, I would have quit that race right then and there – only at T6 of the first lap.

I was behind this one racer for the rest of lap #1, finally convincing myself that there was nothing to fear, I decided to pass him on the exit of T9. I was racing my 2003 ZX-636 in the 750 Super Stock race and had noticed that these 750’s were really putting out more power than my 636 (yes, and the rider was not helping either), so I decided to do what people had been telling me to do all this time. I decided that I would try this “drafting” thing to help even out the odds.

I drafted him into T9, preparing and planning, feeling every bit of myself trying to get a good drive out of T9 so I could pass him on the exit. We exit the turn, I’m drafting closely, and I hit the top of 4rth gear and quickly shift into 5th, gunning the throttle…just to realize that I was closing in on him FAST. TOO FAST!! I swerve over to the left and try to squeeze past him next to the dirt, only to see him stick out his left leg and move over to the left. Time froze for a moment as I thought “I’m not gonna make it - there's nowhere else for me to go.”. Time froze for a moment and for the first time I fully realized EXACTLY how fast 130+mph really was. Too fast. Our speed difference ate up the few feet separating us like it was absolutely nothing. Impact occurred hard and fast. I knew this one was going to hurt…for the first time I wondered if I would be okay.

There was impact. A lot of impact – then silence. Like last week, I raised my head to make sure I was out of the impact zone. I then looked for and saw my bike – yes, totaled once again. I then tried to focus on retaining consciousness. Every bit of my body hurt and I knew that this time I was not okay. Paramedics found me lying next to the green pit wall after the exit of the track. They’re not sure if I hit it and bounced off it, or if I landed there. They were asking me questions and I gave them a thumbs up. They told me I had to talk and I shook my head “no”. They asked why and I tried to take off my helmet. They stopped me and told me to talk…and I mumbled out – “I can’t, I broke teeth…I need to spit.”

The ambulance took me back to my pit. The doors of the ambulance opened up and I was greeted by a lot of concerned faces. I didn’t realize at that time that they were gasping and freaking out because I had blood all over my face. They tried to shut the ambulance door and were yelling at the Paramedics to take me to the hospital. The Paramedics tried to explain to them that I was very adamant that I didn’t want to go. I was in too much pain to worry about them and started taking off my gear. The guys stopped me again and told me to go to the hospital, I told them that I will decide on that after I take off my gear and see what my injuries are, they were welcome to help me, or leave me be. Removal of my gear showed that I needed to go to the hospital. The pain I was in and the size my left leg had swollen, convinced me, but I knew I didn’t need to go in the ambulance and asked if someone could drive me there in a regular cage. In order to lighten the mood a little, I yelled out – “Okay, pit crew! I’m going to the hospital. I crashed out of my first race, I’ll prolly miss Race #3 and #5, but I’ll be back for Race #9! Get yer asses in gear and get my bike up and running, ready to race Race #9!” I thought that’d get a chuckle, but instead I got a lot of dirty looks and a lot of “Oh, my god, she’s INSANE!”.

So the final injuries list is as follows: Broken Fibula and Tibia on my left ankle, tore ligaments/tendons on both sides of the ankle. Deep bruising at the top of my fibula where the bone almost broke through the skin, having been twisted around so badly. It’s now almost 4 months later and the skin at the top of my fibula is still bruised and discolored…is there such a thing as a “bruise scar”? Broken left toe and broke the cesamoid bone under my big toe in half.

Broken and Dislocated Jaw, broke 2 teeth, skull fracture, blood coming out of my right ear, concussion, deeps cuts on my chin. Fractured 3 ribs, fingers, and wrist. Severe contusions to my pelvis and outer right thigh. Bumps and bruises.

I counted up 12 broken bones. Doctors wanted to schedule 4 different surgeries, I turned them all away. They put my leg in a cast and I cut it off when I got home, half an hour later. They told me 6-8 weeks in a cast. I was taking my first steps at 2 weeks. At 3 weeks, I discarded the crutches and could walk with a limp. At 4 weeks, I was riding and trying to recover the atrophied muscles. At 5 weeks, I completed a 200 mile canyon run, trying to get myself back in shape.

This crash was a good thing. A lot of growing came out of recovering from this crash. A lot of realizations, new decisions, new thoughts, new ideas, new understandings, new resolutions. Not talking about in riding only, but in my entire life. It was the end of one era and the beginning of another.

Now I look forward to seeing what this new journey brings.

This crash is quite infamous. There was a lot of outrage and speculation. See, what happened was in that in a race, the rider in front of me got off the throttle on the exit of T9, onto the straight. He did this without signaling first – he did this because that was his first reaction to straightening his bike out on the straight and seeing a red flag. Remember I felt like those guys up ahead were going to crash soon and that’s why I backed off? Well, I was right. It was a bad crash into T1 of the second lap and they raised the red flag. Upon red flag, you’re supposed to signal, and come to a safe stop on the track.

I never knew there was a red flag on the track because I was drafting him and in full lean coming out of T9. The first moment he saw the flag, he got off the throttle and I closed in on him fast – I was focused on swerving to the left and not hitting him. Since he didn’t signal or make any indications of any problems, I proceeded at full speed to pass him – and then he stuck out his left leg and moved over to the left – right into my intended path. With me traveling at approximately 130mph and him having slowed down considerably at this point, the speed difference was great. A lot of people said that I rear ended him, but as you can see from the pictures, that’s not true. I was on his left side, all set to pass him on the outside of the front straight when he moved to the left into me. This brought upon a lot of scrutiny to the red flag rule and WSMC has changed the red flag rule for the 2005 Race Season because of it. There is now no more stopping on the track. Red flag now is the signal to reduce your speed safely and come back into the pits. I’ll refrain from voicing my opinions on this since this is very controversial on what exactly is the safest procedure. All I know is that we, as motorcycle racers, have a very dangerous hobby. Whatever can be done to keep us all as safe as possible will always be a good thing, but there will always be the exposure to extreme danger, there will always be the crashes, and there are never any guarantees.