Brian's OMRRA Race
October 24, 2004

Summary

• My most spectacular crash yet
• Still had enough season points to win the 450 Supersport Season Championship

Sunday October 24 -- The Races

Because the weather Saturday was rainy, I decided to skip the practice sessions on Saturday morning. Julie and I drove to Portland at a reasonable hour and met up with her parents, who were spending a few days in Portland in their RV. We spent the day doing some shopping and having a good time. Her parents made us a nice dinner, we all went out to Salty's on the Columbia River for drinks, and spent the night in the RV.

It was raining, cool, and foggy in the morning. The rain stopped around 8:15 and never did start again, but it still took all morning for the track to dry out.

We only got about a lap and a half into a slippery 450 Supersport qualifier before my friend Stuart Johnson crashed and brought out the red flag. He was not injured, and managed to get the bike back together for the afternoon races.

I got a good start in the 450 Superbike qualifier, and managed to pass several SV's over the 4 laps. I even passed Eric Koegler again, but I think it's because his rain tires were melting because the track was really only damp (not wet enough for rain tires).

Julie and her parents brought a nice lunch, and the dark clouds seemed to be going in other directions. It promised to be a nice afternoon.

Unfortunately, it did not go so well for me. I would have a lot of "firsts":

• my first stay in the hospital
• my first broken bone
• my first season championship (at least one is good news!)

In the 450 Superbike main, I got another decent start. I passed Squirrel (Steve Curley) on his EX just before braking for turn one. I was behind Geoff Ford and everything seemed fine, but the bike just slid out from underneath me.

I remember sliding on the track for a moment watching the bike slide away from me while I was thinking, "Huh, that shouldn't have happened." But Squirrel was right behind me with nowhere to go. He hit me in the back, then crashed as well. I don't remember being hit. The next thing I remember was coming to a stop in the grass and seeing a big cloud of smoke pouring out of my bike, which apparently had the throttle stuck on because the handlebar was jammed in the grass. Running while laying on its side is very bad for a motorcycle because the oil pump at the bottom of the engine stops getting any oil.

I got up to go turn the bike off. However, I immediately noticed that I couldn't breath at all, and my shoulder really hurt. One of the corner workers was already running over, and he said, "We'll turn it off!" so I decided to just fall back down and figure out how to breath again.

In moments the ambulance crew, corner workers, and some ASIT team members were surrounding me and peppering me with questions. "What day is it?" "Who is the president?" "Where did you park?" "Where does it hurt?" All very important, of course, but it was hard to get one answer out before the next question was asked. After checking to make sure there were no apparent spinal injuries, the ambulance crew let me get up and walk into the ambulance. They gave me a ride back to the pits. I decided not to ride with them to the hospital, but it was clear that a trip to the hospital was called for.

The Emergency Room

Fortunately, Julie's parents were able to help out because their truck was parked outside the track. With their help, Julie and her mom drove me to the hospital while Les Green, Geoff Ford, Bill Laupp (and probably some other people) packed my bike and gear into my truck, which Julie's dad then drove.

At the emergency room I was processed fairly quickly and was soon sent to the CT scanner and X-Ray room a couple of times. The doctors determined that there were no vertebrae fractured, but they were concerned about blood in my lung. This led to another trip through the CT scanner, this time with iodine dye injected into my blood to make it more visible. After the initial processing and imaging, things became more of a drawn out process. I suppose that since none of my problems were life threatening, or risked paralysis, I was moved to a lower priority.

After being there for about 4 hours I was finally allowed to drink some water and go to the bathroom. Obviously, emergency rooms are no place to go when you are thirsty.

Eventually we got a diagnosis from a doctor. I had broken my first rib, which he was not really concerned about, but he was worried about the blood in my lung. When you get a bruise on your arm or leg, it turns pretty colors because the capillaries in your skin are bleeding, but the blood is all trapped within the skin. When you bruise your lung, the capillaries bleed, but the blood just goes into your lung.

Most likely the lung was recovering and the bleeding would slowly stop, but the doctor wanted to keep me overnight to make sure. I wanted to leave, and Julie did, too, so I got out of the bed and tried sitting in a chair for a while to see what driving home would be like.

The doc came back and I told him I wanted to leave. He tried to convince me otherwise by painting a bleak verbal picture of me drowning in my own blood. I should have been less polite, because I started getting tunnel vision and I wanted to interrupt him and move back to the bed. By the time he paused and I got a chance to say anything, I fainted a moment later. I'll never know if it was his gruesome description of my possible doom, or if I really wasn't ready to sit up and move around yet. In either case, that pretty much made the decision to spend the night in the hospital.

Of course, the first thing that happened once I had been transferred from the emergency room to the "normal" hospital was that they removed the heart monitor that would have sounded the alarm if I was dying, and told me that the nurse would be in every two hours to check on me. Sheesh! I think Julie could have checked on me more frequently at home.

Anyway, after a night of little sleep, interrupted regularly by the nurse who wanted to get my blood pressure, temperature, and pulse, I was sent to the X-Ray room at 7:15 AM. The nurse reported that the doctor had looked at the X-Ray by 9AM or so and verified that the bleeding had stopped, but for some reason the doctor couldn't get around to discharging me until 2:30PM.

Perhaps I shouldn't sound so frustrated by my hospital stay because they did make sure I didn't have any life-threatening problems, and the nurses were consistently friendly and helpful. But then I remember how much my stay there is going to cost (I still haven't got the bill, but probably over $10,000), and that no doctor ever told me how long my broken rib would take to heal, or gave any suggestions for things to help it mend.

Externally, the bike isn't really in too bad shape, but something bad did happen to the engine while it was running on its side. I tried to start it and it stopped with a horrible "clank" after half a revolution.

Because the last couple of races had only 4 people on the starting grid in 450 Supersport, the my season points from wins in the other races were enough to finish first for the class. The season trophy is big and gaudy, and I love it!

Rocky Sloan had rented an on-bike video camera that afternoon, and was following Squirrel and I into the turn. I got to watch the video with Rocky after the OMRRA Awards Banquet, and also talked to Squirrel. Squirrel kept trying to apologize for hitting me, and I kept apologizing for wrecking in front of him. Fortunately, neither he nor his bike were seriously damaged, but he did have to replace his helmet.

Watching the video from Rocky's bike, I still couldn't figure out what I'd done wrong to crash, so I guess I'll never know. Because Rocky is behind Squirrel, you can't really tell exactly where Squirrel hits me, either, so I don't know whether to thank my back protector for not having any spinal injuries, or if that was just good luck.

I took Vicodin for the first week, then took it only to sleep for the next week. I didn't get much done that first week, but I've been able to work at my computer since then. Luckily all I have to do at work is sit and type, because I still can't lift heavy things. Sleeping is my biggest problem because there is really only one position that works (on my back), but I get uncomfortable and wish I could turn over after a few hours. Still, I feel fortunate to have only a relatively minor injury compared to the possibility of spinal damage.

Thanks

Thanks go to Les Green, Bill Laupp, and Geoff Ford for packing all my gear.

Special thanks to Julie's parents for helping with hospital logistics, and spending many hours at the hospital. Not to mention thanks for dinner and a place to stay in Portland.

Thanks to all the OMRRA turn workers, registration folks, and other volunteers who made this OMRRA race and practice day possible, with special thanks to the ASIT and the corner 1 workers.

Thanks to my sponsors Inside Line, Dunlop Motorcycle Tires, and Lockhart-Philips USA. Thanks also to EDR Performance.

My wife, Julie, managed to make it through the experience without freaking out, and she has been a wonderful nurse and helper while I recover.

TJ Newton also deserves thanks for helping unload the bike when we came back home on Monday.