Thanks Z2 and participating dealers!
Anyone know if the riders who crashed first session in B group yesterday are okay? I was right behind them and it was pretty gnarly...
Yup.
I was one of the riders involved in this crash. I do know the other riders first name, I overheard him tell the EMT’s, but I will refer to him as “dude.”
This was session
ONE, lap
TWO, between turns 2 and 3. One rider passed me and forced me to alter my line while approaching T3 (ie a bad pass
), the next thing I saw was his buddy, “dude” passing on the inside in a full-on tank slapper/speed wobble/wtf. There was NOT a pass to be had there, and he apparently figured that out too late. I cannot tell you exactly he did to upset his bike so severely (we have theories within my group), but when I saw him, my instant thought was “he’s going down.” That thought wasn’t even completed when (I’m assuming) dude hit the front brake, which made a very bad situation into a f’ing nightmare. Dude and his bike were launched across the track in directly front of me, both on their sides. Fortunately dude was at such an angle that he was immediately safe from being struck by me. His bike however was maybe 6 inches off my front wheel, and still moving sideways. At the pace we were carrying, that 6 inches was covered in milliseconds….I did not even have a chance to TRY to brake.
For people that haven’t crashed, the world really does slow down…you are able to have random thoughts, and little conversations with yourself as you as moving through the crash-festivities. At this moment I actually flashed to Moto3, J. Kornfeil, last year who successfully launched himself and his bike over a bike that had gone down in front of him. I had a “maybe I can?”
rolleyes) thought. That thought was VERY short lived as my bike plowed into the still moving downed bike, launching me over the front, and sending my bike down on its side, to be washed away into the dirt. I lawn darted into the track headfirst, with left shoulder a very quick second-arrival. As I smashed my head into the asphalt the rando thought was “F’ing A, that should have knocked me out, this helmet is AWESOME.”
While I laid on my belly on the track, doing a quick self-assessment to see if I could roll-over, I could hear the other bikes going around me...THAT sound I can definitely live without hearing again. I was mildly surprised this little shenanigan did not deserve a red-flag, but that thought passed as I approved myself to roll onto my back and get up and get my ass off the “still live??” track. After rolling over, I discovered that I could not actually get up. So I settled on crawling off the track. I could see the other rider laying motionless, quite apparently still unconscious, so I crawled over that direction. Again, passing thought…"you are crawling DIRECTLY into the impact zone….this is exactly what you are NOT supposed to do”. My seething anger would not allow me to stop. I will just say that when the two ambulances arrived, I was still LOUDLY calling dude every name in the book.
I will have more details on the extent of my injuries after my doctors appointment and xrays/etc this morning. I have one leg with what I believe to be a strained groin muscle, and one leg with a torn groin muscle (presumably from my abrupt departure over the front of the bike). I have unknown damage/injury to my shoulder….I have range of motion, but cannot lift/hold anything with that arm. I have apparently some cracked bits in my upper chest but that only hurts when I sneeze/cough or am laying down, and I have a right thumb that was hyper-extended, but that is healing rapidly now that the swelling is down. I am in a sling on the left and a crutch on the right to go anywhere. My bike has seen better days, but it has also seen worse. I need some bits & pieces to get it tech-passable. But as has been the case in the past, my little R6 (R450) started right up, and was able to be ridden back in. She’s such a tough little soldier.
I do not know dude's injuries, I heard the EMT's say possible broken coller bone. He was transported out - as he should have been based on the length of time he was unconscious.
I have crashed before--multiple times. I have never been needlessly taken out by another rider. I know others have, and there will be others in the future...how in the hell do people get over the MAD?? The biggest challenge to me has not been dealing with the pain or the logistics of newly required medical accessories, it is not the “now I gotta fix my bike” and it actually isn’t the frustration of working so hard on my skills, and having that taken away. What I have found most challenging is dealing with the extreme anger directly solely at dude. I have spent many hours pondering on this, because I want to be back to
ME. I want my happy “laaalalalaaaa, dooooteeeedoooo” spirit back. I know shit happens. I know every time any of us are on track, crashes like this are a possibility. I know dude did not get up in the morning and set a goal of wrecking someone else’s bike, causing someone else physical harm, taking away race rounds and already scheduled track days.
I do know that. But the anger persists. I am disappointed in myself that I cannot seem to find the “high-road” and rise above this anger. Every time I flinch in pain, every time I hobble about with my baby steps, I mutter “f’ing ____________”. I am disappointed that while I have great faith in my physical ability to bounce back, I cannot seem to shake this “I want to punch him in the face” feeling.
F’ing _______________. You wrecked my bike and my body, but most of all you wrecked my happy.
).
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