Hey everyone! I'm here, I'm ok!
First off let me start by saying thank you to Scott & Ellen Guthrie for allowing me the honor of riding their bike. It tears me up that I was on their bike when I went down. What an awesome run. Everything came together and was rock solid. The bike was unbelievable! It was so smooth that I honestly didn’t realize how fast I was going! I had intended to try to run through at about 200. Turns out I ran through at 212!!!! What a ride! If I never have the opportunity to throw a leg over another turbo bike again I will always treasure this most awesome opportunity they have given me! I hope we can work together to get that bike back to what it was before I made that last pass!
Let me apologize now to everyone that was there for the scare! As soon as I stopped sliding I thought about standing up to let everyone know I was ok but knew better then to do it, so I just sat there with two thumbs up in hopes that everyone wouldn't panic! I knew my shoulder hurt but everything else felt & was moving as it should be. I had no clue where the bike ended up. All I knew was I just went down and I did it on someone else’s bike. What a sick feeling. I knew for the most part I was ok so it was easy for me to remain calm and in good spirits.
Everyone that came to my aid was top notch. The rescue squad was patient & understanding, the officials and volunteers and close friends were just great. Everyone was so concerned and understanding that it was just awesome.
So, what happened? Simply put, I hit a cone in shut down. In my opinion there were a few contributing factors, or more like mistakes on my part. The biggest one being going too fast too soon. I had intended to run around a 200 and feel out the shut down and generally progress a little at a time with the speed. I guess I just got a little caught up in things. We spent a lot of time going over how to execute the run and not so much on the shut down. My shut downs had been going well all day so there was no expectation that it would be problematic. (Possibly mistake number 1). Well, as it turns out I executed a very good run. Shifting was dead on, my tuck was great, wide-open throttle through 5th & 6th. Exactly as we had planned as the ultimate goal. What I failed to do in the heat of the run was come to the realization that the bike was geared for close to 220 (?) and that a successful full throttle run would net me well above 200. The run felt great! Rock solid no issues with the speed, no fear, no reason to back down. I hit shut down and executed it as I had all day. The problem being I was going faster then I had gone all day. I scrubbed off a lot of speed and as I was able to make my focus and orientation on the track to make the slight right turn all that came into focus was the cone in front of me. All I had to do was look to the right for the "hole" and all would have been well. Instead I fixed on the cone (target fixation). I thought, oh no, there's a cone, oh no, I'm going to hit the cone, I wanted to go right to avoid the cone but the last thing I thought was I'm going to hit the cone. It didn’t occur to me that hitting the cone would put me down to the ground. I guess in that fleeting moment I had hoped it would just bounce off & get my front end a little shaky. I grabbed as much brake as I could. It seems the cone got under the bike, flipped up and we low sided. I hit the cone with the left side of the tire. We went another 60’ or so and the tires went out to the left. The bike and I went down on the right. My right shoulder hit first. From there I essentially barrel rolled twice & slid to a stop at the edge of the grass. At the time I had no knowledge of the whereabouts of the bike. It ended up off course in the bushes beyond where I stopped. After we went back and checked the scrape marks we realized that the bike and I skidded parallel and only about 4 feet apart. I am quite lucky we didn’t get tangled up.
The end result to me is that I broke my right collarbone in two places. I have a bruised lung (because of that they kept me overnight at the hospital for observation) I have an “Indian burn” type rash on my left forearm about 3 inches long where the leathers twisted on my arm. My left hand is swollen & bruised. My gear is shot but 100% did the job of protecting me. None of it wore completely through. I may be able to use my boots again and can definitely use my internal back protector. Everything else is road rashed but saved my hide! The bike as you would expect suffered fairing damage. It was able to be rolled back into the truck so that is encouraging. We won’t know the extent of the mechanical damage until it is back home & torn down.
I’m out of the riders seat for somewhere around 3-6 weeks. I’ll have to see an orthopedic when I get home for the final prognosis. Had I not broken my clavicle I most definitely would have been back on a bike today. The speed didn’t scare me, the crash didn’t scare me. I won’t let that dang right bend get the better of me. I’ll be back out and work my way through a safe, controlled & consistent shut down while more slowly increasing my trap speed.
Thanks for all of the well wishes, thoughts and prayers. It’s back to pit tootsie for me for a few weeks but I plan to be back in the saddle in September!
Debbie Dross #1302
Twin Jugs Racing
Proud to be sponsored a ride by Scott Guthrie Racing
