How is your season going?

[Mantis]

Curious to know how the other fellow racers are doing this season. Any real good races or crashes?? I'll start: One first place finish in LW Supersport, a second in LW SS, a second in LW GP, a second in thunderbikes, and a bunch of thirds. I also haven't crashed yet this year (knocks on wood)... How about everyone else?

[GSXR RACER MIKE]

For the last several seasons I have gone to most events and done just a couple classes per event at a 'casual' race pace, but hopefully by doing this I can get the rest of the way out of the huge financial hole I dug racing in the past. I look forward to the day when I can actually race hard again, but for now restraint is what it's about for me.

So far this season I have raced at Daytona (Bike Week 2006 / CCS), Blackhawk Farms, & Heartland Park. I'm still using the same pair of D208GP's that I originally had mounted on my '02 GSXR 750 back in 2004 when I 1st started racing that bike - needless to say that new tires would provide more traction, but that is a cost I have tried to minimize during this time.

You said you wanted crash info, so here you go:

I also went to Mid-America Motorplex earlier this season, 3 racer freinds carpooled with me out there. Saturday morning when we arrived at the track we got registered and set-up our pit area just in time for a huge storm to roll in just as they were going to start practice. Due to alot of lightning, they brought the corner workers in and didn't open practice till after the storm was gone, which wasn't until after lunch. The bad thing about heavy rain is that it can wash rubber off the track and bring dirt onto the track as well, both of these situations can cause reduced traction. One of my freinds went out for his 1st practice session with another racer who was pitted next to us, this turned out really bad. My freind was on his 1st lap (he is an Expert and has raced 4 years) and got a little throttle happy on his '01 R6 and ended up having the back end of the bike start to come around on him as he accelerated out of a turn. He backed off the throttle and the bike snapped back to traction and bucked him up and out of the seat, a typical high-side in progress. The difference with this was that he almost saved it, the guy pitted next to us watched it all happen right in front of him and thought my freind might save it, but he didn't. Instead what happened is he impacted the handlebars and triple clamp with the left side of his body as the handle bars snapped toward him, this caused him to roll off the side of the bike into what looked like a minor crash. But when the corner workers got to him he was choking on blood so they called Omaha for a Life Flight Helicopter, he was able to get breathing before the Helicopter took off so he demanded they transport him by Ambulance, the EMT's agreed he could after checking him out so instead they rushed him by Ambulance to Omaha.

I drove to Omaha after getting contact info from race officials and directions to the Trama Hospital listed for medical emergencies for that event. Upon arrival at the Emergency Room they allowed me to see my freind before he was brought to the CT Scanner to help identify his internal injuries. Immediately it had been determined he was in very serious condition and had a collapsed lung, so they put in a chest tube before even taking him to get the CT scan. This would be the last time I saw my freind that afternoon as I had to get to the booked up hotel to pay for our room before it was given up to people on a waiting list, then return back to the racetrack to put all our stuff away and get my other 2 freinds. Medical personel were able to remove my freinds leathers and gear without cutting any of it, a nurse and myself gathered up all his gear and put it in a large clear plastic bag after they wheeled my freind away. Collecting my freinds bloodied helmet and leathers, being given his personal belongings, carrying all of it quite a ways out into the parking lot, and hearing people softly talk as I passed them (when they saw the helmet and gear thru the clear bag) brought a real numbness and sense of mortality. Leaving him there alone was tough, but it was a neccessity, about this time I recieved a call from his sister who had been listed as an emergency contact on his registration form for the event - what a way to meet someone.

In the end we had to leave him all alone out in Omaha (9 hours from where he lives), that was SO hard to do, especially since he was in the Intensive Care Unit. He ended up having badly bruised lungs with 1 of them being collapsed, broken ribs, a broken shoulder, broken collar bone, internal bleeding, and had a chest tube and another tube down to his stomach clearing it of blood - he was told his collapsed lung was the most badly bruised lung they had ever seen. He ended up being in the ICU 5 days, 11 days in the Hospital total, then he was driven back home by a relay of 2 family members and myself each transporting him part of the 9 hour drive. He has since returned back to work in a machine shop with very limited use of his left side, luckily he runs CNC equipment which doesn't require alot of physical labor. He has been told by specialists that he has permanent lung damage which will require him having surgery in the future to remove the damaged portion of his left lung, but for now he is OK to live with it how it is.

Since I started racing in '96 this was the 1st time I was involved close up with someone I know who has been seriously injured. Two other times I have known people who met serious misfortune, but I wasn't right there with them. In 2003 a guy that I knew thru our racing organizations message board died at the Race of Champions during practice at Daytona, the day before that he was in our pit area introducing himself and BS'ing with us. In 2005 I worked on the M4 Suzuki Team at Daytona during Bike Week and met Vincent Haskoveck, a month later he was paralyzed. It's very humbling seeing stuff like this close up, I suppose something that can result after things like this happen is it can help you to re-focus on staying safe while still continueing to race.

[jk750]

Uh... Wow! Very sobering. And not just the part about your two year old race tires.

I crashed one month ago at Summit main, but it seems so trivial after that post.

[Newfie Girl]

Wow! Hope your friend is ok. One of the worst feelings in the world to have a friend hurt while out on track. I had a real bad high side last year that left me with some new surgical steel and a little more trepidatious to say the least!! This year so far I got to try PIR and it was amazing. Our local weather has been less then race friendly for the most part. Missing the track time at this point!

[Mantis]

Originally Posted by jk750

Uh... Wow! Very sobering. And not just the part about your two year old race tires.

I crashed one month ago at Summit main, but it seems so trivial after that post.

So are you racing this year JK? How has it been going?