Your worst crash?

Started by Speedballer347, October 10, 2005, 07:32:48 PM

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Green_Knight

Highsided in T15 at MAM.  Almost got ran over too.  Pics made it into the June issue of Roadracer World magazine, thanks Dean  :P.

http://www.momentumphoto.net/events/trackaddix/05apr10/1430school/index_7.html

CCSRacer114

Highside Turn 11, Homestead, December '04.

Man that was nasty! Landed in the middle of the track, too!  Fortunately my bike was protecting me and everyone had to go around it so I was safest just lying in the middle of the track.

Couldn't stand for more than 10 minutes at a time for two weeks without passing out, but was on a plane 2 days later to Puerto Rico.



PJ

QuoteI saw your helmet from that crash over the weekend.  Bet your wondering how I got in your office ;D

Hmm. I have a pretty good guess (Dora must have been showing you around?)

Yeah, I don't know why I keep those old crashed helmets. I just can bear to throw some of them away. Don't want them at home though. My wife is fine with me racing (and crashing) as long as I don't get hurt.  ;)
Paul James
AMA Pro XR1200 #70
www.facebook.com/jamesgangracing
www.twitter.com/jamesgangracing

Super Dave

Pick a year.

The humble origins of "Super Dave", the name that stuck, started in May of 1987 at Blackhawk Farms Raceway.  My third race weekend.  I was racing a GSXR750, the first motorcycle I ever owned and the first motorcycle I ever rode.  Additionally, I was racing a GSXR1100 in the heavyweight superbike class in the WERA National Endurance Series.  I think that bike was the third bike I ever rode.  I rode my friends RZ500 race bike once before.  To make the whole weekend even better, I just purchased a cheap used RZ350 race bike from a mutual friend...stock pipes.

I go out for my stint on the GSXR1100.  I had a few laps of practice.  I was strugglng a bit because we had a 17" front wheel on the front, and GSXR's came with 18's stock.  Didn't know anything about much of anything, but I did know that the 1100 turned differently.

My stint came up, and I went out.  Old Blackhawk didn't have the little chicane dealio like it does now.  That was added in like 90 or 91.  So, you'd come out of the carousel toward four full bore at like 120.  I got in there, and rolled off and used the brakes.  I felt someone push me gently from behilnd.  Next thing I know, I'm sitting on the ground sliding on my butt.  The bike is sliding next to me.  Some other guy passes me on the ground following his bike.  We stop, he gets up and get's his bike.  I'm incensed about this 'cause I'm realizing that this moron just as$packed me and knocked me down...my first racing crash and it wasn't my fault.

I go get the bike and roll it back to the pits through the wall between four and five.  Fifteen minutes later, the bike is back together and I'm racing again.  We finish.

Next day, I'm trying to learn how to ride an RZ350.  I'm struggling with turn six.  I race my GSXR750 fine.  My first race on the RZ is immedately after.  So, I come in, meet one of our guys that has my RZ, and I'm off.  I think I did a lap before I went wide on the exit of six.

On the GSXR1100, I did it a couple of times, and I could just roll on the gas and it would pull out of the gravel and shoot back up on to the track, no problem.  The RZ is kind of like a lanky dirt bike with road race tires.  I'm in the soft gravel, and I'm expecting to kind of shoot back up on the track.  Well, the front wheel turns to the lock and I'm pile driven into the ground.  Dirt and dust everywhere.  

The ambulance come over to pick me up.  I guess they originally identified me as a "black man" because I had a certain tint to my skin because of all the dirt in my helmet.  Got out of the aid station, which was at the current registration building, and washed off at the hose.  Had to go back and get the five pound sledge out to bend my right handle bar back from a position of 90 degrees;  pipe wrench to twist the footpeg back to a usable position.  My tach cable was ripped off.

Next race, I go out.  I was using ear plugs.  My problem was that, one, ear plugs worked.  Next, RZ350's with stock pipes that have the full catalytic converters are quiet.  With no tach, I couldn't hear the engine or know when I really wanted to shift.  Kind of did it by timing.  

I'm almost done with the race, and I'm just through the kink.  I'm on the brakes and for some reason, the bike fell over.  I slide on my hands and knees into the grass at the outside of turn seven.

I never gave up...I ran out of races.  "Super" Dave

There's more...how long do we have?
Super Dave

Super Dave

In 1991, I was contracted to the Roscetti Corporation as a rider for their program.  The Roscetti Corporation was the importer of Bimota Motorcycles.  I was supposed to be teamed with another rider as part of a "B" team in the AMA.  The A team was Dale Quarterley and Tommy Douglas, a Yamaha Canada Factory rider who had some top ten finishes in some early WSB events.

Money ran short, we didn't get a Bimota of our own.  We raced an FZR750R at Daytona, my first time there.  I continued on with an AMA program in 750 Supersport.

I liked Brainerd.  Was fun.  My bike was ok.  Set up needed to be better.  Anyway, Russell did something goofy and was gridded at the back.  I was a few rows back.  We gridded up for the start, and I'm waiting for the green flag.  I want a good start.  I was going to go to Loudon from Brainerd and work with Dale personally there at a school, the Penguin School that the Wood boys now run.

I saw the green flag, and I launched.  Seemed like it was just me and about four other bikes that saw it and reacted.  I'm shifing gears and going down the long straight.  The track tapers down a bit and you get compressed from the left.  I'm moving over through traffic.  I feel a little nudge from my right.  Then a bigger nudge.  I feel my bike lean a bit, then a bit more...


The body has that knack of when things kind of suck, you're not there for it....


I think I got swiped from the right side eventually taking my right clip on out and driving me right into the ground.  I was rendered unconcious immediately.  By the marks on my first ever set of Vanson Leathers, I was sliding on the ground on my chest.  The guy that took me out had my body in front of him.  As he approached me, he decided to use the brakes as he began to run me over.  Starting at my left kindey, he continued across my back, my neck, and my head inside my helmet.  Asphalt was driven into my leathers everywhere on my chest.  I had Dunlop tire tracks on my neck and tire rubber on my helmet, face shield, and back of my leathers.  

I don't break very easily, so I didn't have any injuries from that.  

But the braking force across my neck flexed my thorax a bit.  I had a pretty good scab across my adam's apple where my skin was used for traction.  My chin was driven into the ground as the front of my helmet was flexed beyond it's ability to maintain its shape....
Super Dave

Super Dave

My chin got a pretty decent rip in it.

So, I guess I must have rolled onto my back at some point.  I'm bleeding all over the track.  That all pooled under my leathers adding to their character.

Unconcious, things are quiet.  

Gradually, the dimmer controls begin to let light into my eyes.  To me, it was a very similar feeling to how they filmed a couple of sequences in Saving Private Ryan.  Watching that was very, very familiar to me.  I'm not sure if that sequence was filmed that was because someone described it that way or if it was just done for the effect.  Anyway, lights, a little sound, a sharp pain in my chin that I know I like having my hand on.  In time, I feel as though I'm still racing, and my body clock is telling me that I'm in between turns one and two.  It's starting to become apparent that I'm not racing any more.  EMT people arrive.  Backboard, etc.  My sponsor arrives.  I'm obviously pretty alert, and I'm answering questions.  They want to know if I want to be transported.  I reply, "Well, I don't know.  How do I look from there?"  I defer to my sponsor and he suggests that we go for a ride in the ambulance.


More story?


So, I'm there lying on a backboard bouncing around in an ambulance.  My chin has a whole bunch of crap on it.  I'm just enjoying the ride talking as usual.

You know how it is when you see someone that you think you know, but you just don't know where you know them from?  

Well, I start looking at the EMT guy that's in my sight there with my body strapped down.  I finally just can't handle in anymore, and I say, "You know, it seems like I know you from someplace."  He's kind of curt with me and says, "No."  It's beginning to bug me.  We finally arrive at the hospital.  He's at the head end of the gurney pushing me.  I tell him again that it seems like I know him from some place, and I get the evil look from him where he is thinking that I really whacked my head.

We roll another fifteen feet, and we're now rolling down the hospital hallway.  I'm staring at the wonderful drop ceiling wondering why they don't put stuff up there to entertain you.

Finally, I remember.  "Ok, I've got it.  The other day, you were standing in line at K-Mart trying to buy something.  You and your ambulance parnter were just trying to check out and buy some stuff.  The cashier lady starts going on and on about her sister-in-law studing to be an EMT or something, you're just saying 'ok, yeah', but she just keeps going on and on"...


His eye's light up as the painful memory is relived...

He looks down at me, eyes wide open, a smile on his face, "Yeah!" he exclaims.


I put on my biggest grin and say, "I was standing right behind you."


I was inspected, and X-rayed...got out of my leathers without having them cut off while my head was strapped to the back board.  Got eight stitches.  I walked out with the support of the railings on the walls while wearing my road racing boots, my bicycling pants, and a blue and white gown.  Everyone thought I was dead.  My bike would have made a restart.
Super Dave

smoke

So SD when are you going to write the book?

Protein Filled

Edgar Dorn #81 - Numbskullz Racing, Mason Racin Tires, Michelin, Lithium Motorsports



Don't give up on your dreams! If an illiterate like K3 can write a book, imagine what you can do!

TZDeSioux

I crashed once in the bus stop at BHF and ripped the crotch of my leathers.

Super Dave

Oh, I've got more...

How about the time I raced the AMA national at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a Thursday, Friday, Saturday event...

Then drove all night (thought it was about six hundred miles, but it ended up being nine hundred) to get to Grattan.  Raced, rained, highsided.

Hitting walls at Gateway?

"And They Walked Away, Part IV"...I'm in that.

Crashing a $70,000 bike?  
Super Dave

Speedballer347

QuoteHitting walls at Gateway?
I got ya beat Dave.  I hit the wall and stayed upright :o  :D
CCS #347 expert, MW/GP, GSXR1000
JoJo Bits, HighSpeedAssault.com, WickedStickers.com, GNO Kneesliders, WFO-Motorsports IL, ImageX Photography, Royalty Racing

Super Dave

Which wall?  I tent pegged into the wall outside of one.  It wasn't pretty.  But everyone seemed to find the time to take lots of pictures of my bike.  It was a real chiropractic moment for myself.  We were separated before we got there too.
Super Dave