Author Topic: note from Bill Warner  (Read 10253 times)

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Offline entropy

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note from Bill Warner
« on: November 15, 2011, 04:27:25 AM »
Everyone,

It is Monday, November 14th,  twenty four days since my event at the Texas Mile.  First of all, I want to thank everyone for their faithful prayers and wishes – they truly worked.  There has been such an outpouring of kindness and consideration for me and my situation.  I’m am overwhelmed with the time and energy and love that everyone has put toward my recovery.  I can’t count the number of emails, gifts, texts, phone calls, and personal visits that have been delivered to me.  There have also been many things that required my attention during the last several weeks, and I was unable to attend to them.  Once again, my friends and the racing community has graciously stepped up and picked the slack.  I will always be grateful to each and every one of you.

Now, I also want to acknowledge everyone’s consideration in allowing me to focus on the healing process and not asking me to answer all the questions that you have about the crash on October 21st.  So, now I’d like  to just offer up a little bit of my perspective on what occurred:

The run started out just as planned.  However, in 6th Gear, at approximately 270 MPH and at about the ¾ Mile marker, the bike did a dramatic wheelie.  At that time I shut the bike down to bring it into control, passing through the speed traps at 238 MPH.  Shut down was normal and felt under control.  I was aggressively braking and scrubbing off speed as thought appropriate and approaching the newly paved/coated “last 1000 feet of paved shutdown” I had reduced my speed to approximately 100 MPH.  At this point all appeared good and I was headed for a completed run.  However, when transitioning from the concrete paved track to the newly coated/paved section of the shut down area, with lots of braking still being applied, the bike abruptly washed out, slamming me and the bike to the pavement on the left side.  I was briefly knocked unconscious and unaware of what transpired during the next several seconds as the bike and I slid to a final stopping point.  As I began to return to consciousness I found myself surrounded by the Texas Mile Emergency Team.   After a few minutes of careful assessment my condition by the Emergency Staff, I was loaded into the emergency helicopter and transported to the Spohn Memorial Hospital Trauma Center.  Here’s a quick summary of my injuries: road rash on left shoulder, broken scapula, four broken ribs, punctured left lung, contusion on the liver, broken bones on left hand (forefinger and thumb), severe abrasions with significant tissue damage and loss to the left/inside knee area, severe tissue damage and tissue loss to the top of the left foot, to include the severing and loss of the big toe tendon.  As any of who have experienced a significant crash, the injuries are only part one, then comes the break fix/treatment work.   Nineteen days of significant pain medicine therapy made it a bit difficult to offer very much coherent communications to friends and supporters.  But that is now over, and I look forward to seeing and communicating with all of you.  The chest tube has been removed from my right lung, the skin graft taken from the top of my left thigh and placed on the damaged left knee and foot, the big toe tendon has been fused, the broken bones have been pinned in my left hand are mending the fractures, and I now focused on the next phase of my recovery.

 
Once again, my heartfelt thanks go out to each and every one of you who have been there for me in my time of need.  For that I will be eternally grateful.

Yours truly,
Bill
Here are some pics, the video will follow in a day to two:




         






Offline nrhs sales

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Re: note from Bill Warner
« Reply #1 on: November 15, 2011, 11:15:28 AM »
Wow, You were hurt a lot more than most of us I think thought!!  Glad you are doing better now. Keep your spirits up and hope to meet you in person one day at Bonneville.

Offline racer

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Re: note from Bill Warner
« Reply #2 on: November 15, 2011, 12:06:04 PM »
Glad you recovering.
Look forward to seeing you at Bonneville or Mojave, one more time.

Ray C Wheeler

Offline relaxedphit

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Re: note from Bill Warner
« Reply #3 on: November 15, 2011, 12:53:47 PM »
Our prayers and good wishes will still be with you as you continue to heal.

Offline saltwheels262

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Re: note from Bill Warner
« Reply #4 on: November 15, 2011, 07:36:00 PM »
bill,
hope that you're doing better at this time. great to meet and
speak with you after your 311.

I'm assuming paved / coated was new asphalt .
even a week or more later , petroleum residue can rise and sit
on the surface of  new pavement .
( this comes from way too much time on hot asphalt jobs. )

bill franey

bike looks like it came out  better than you did .

bub '07 - 140.293 a/pg   120" crate street mill  
bub '10 - 158.100  sweetooth gear
lta  7/11 -163.389  7/17/11; 3 run avg.-162.450
ohio -    - 185.076 w/#684      
lta 8/14  - 169.xxx. w/sw2           
'16 -- 0 runs ; 0 events

" it's not as easy as it looks. "
                            - franey  8/2007

Offline dr j

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Re: note from Bill Warner
« Reply #5 on: November 16, 2011, 06:54:43 AM »
Bill,
Thanks for taking the time to let us all know what really happened from the rider's unique perspective.  That is valuable information.  Also it was great to read Bill Hoddinott's interview of you in the current issue of Bonneville Racing News.  Fascinating insider's look at your program.  My prayers for your fast healing.  Hope to see you at the Ohio Mile next year.
Jarl- Moto Madcap
Sharpsburg MD
BUB2012- Morini 350- 4 Mod Pushrod records, Parilla 175- M-VG rec
250cc 4stroke Nitrous Motorcycle- 131.8mph
250/4 Naked Motorcycle-115.6mph
APS/F-125/2 115.2mph
P/PV-175/4 Moto Parilla-59.7mph
29 Retired Maxton Class Records on 3 bikes and 4 engines

Offline roadracer

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Re: note from Bill Warner
« Reply #6 on: November 17, 2011, 06:30:03 AM »
Take it slow for a while Bill.  I've been beat up like you are in my old roadracing days.  Nothing is easy.  It's great the community has come together to offer you some support.  It will be good to see you again as you are one of the "Good Guys" in Land Speed.  You will be back stronger than ever I'm sure.
2006 Kawasaki ZX-6rr (Worlds Fastest standing mile and 1.5 mile)
2008 Kawasaki ZX-10R (4 200 MPH Clubs)
2008 Kawasaki EX-250R (Multiple ECTA and LTA records)
131 Land Speed Records set since 2008
125 Land Speed Racing records (including 3 Worlds Fastest Speeds) set since 2008.

Offline badcoupe34

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Re: note from Bill Warner
« Reply #7 on: November 19, 2011, 09:06:28 PM »
Bill, I want you to know my prayers were with you every minute of the news that you went down. You are one of the most stalwart racers known to me and I have the utmost respect for you and your efforts. Get better man and I am sure our paths will cross again this season. Luv U Man

Offline 2fast4u2c

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Re: note from Bill Warner
« Reply #8 on: November 21, 2011, 11:36:13 PM »
Bill,

As I said before in my call, the only way anyone will ever best your speed is if you stop pursuing it. Looking forward to seeing you at the inaugural event at Wilmington ECTA.  Until then, rest up and get well.  You really had my heart pumping.  And I love my new T-shirt, you need to autograph it for me.

Guy
300mph or Bust in 1 mile!!!
 
 Tiger Racing