ROEBLING ROAD 6-4-06 RACE 1 Carnage!!!

Heavyweight twins superbike, race one could have been a good one... I hate delays in the race day especially when I cause it!!! The amatures in heavyweight twins were having a good fight when on lap 3, turn 9 it got ugly here is a combined race report for me, Jerry Reeves #771 and Scott Morris #410, both yellow plates on Aprilias.

>Race 1: Got typical start (ie: fairly lousy). Some head shake before
>braking into 1 at top speed. Little scary. Started going. Caught up
>to Jerry. Came into last turn right behind him. He got really good
>drive coming out, started to pull a little bit. THen he lost the
>rear, went down. His bike looked like it was on the right side
>(towards the wall) and he was coming off to the left side. Scott
>went left to avoid the wall, hoping to dodge Jerry, but was too close
>and didn't have time to avoid him. Thinks he clipped him as they were
>both headed for the grass. Lost control. Thinks he went over the
>handle bars and smashed right shoulder into ground. When stopped,
>sat up, looked over and then lost consciousness. Next thing he
>knows, he is being held up fighting to gain consciousness. Ambulance
>brought him in. Paramedics thought maybe dislocated shoulder. Packed
>Scott and Jerry into ambulance (with no AC!!) and brought to hospital.
> Spent many hours in the hospital, in pain. End result: Broken
>right shoulder. Broken Mille.
>
>Big thanks from Scott to my wife (that's me!) and from both of us to
>Frank, Chip, Danny, Diane, and all the others who helped load the
>trailer and get us on the road to home. Also enormous heartfelt
>thanks to Jerry's wife Sabrina for watching 5 year old Brandon for me
>so I could go visit Scott in the ER. We switched on and off visiting
>the guys for about 5 hours.
>
>Extremely unlikely to have Mille repaired. Very bad condition.
>
>He is basically okay, just in pain. He is eating today and keeping
>food down.
>
>Jerry, How are you doing today????
>
Well all things considered I am ok, I dont know about my bike I havent
looked at it yet. I'll be taking a look tonight, a couple of guys from the
shop are going to come over and help unload the trailer.

I have done a ton of thinking about the crash and heres my take.

I knew that in order to hold Scott off for a little while I had to get a
good start. It worked out ok, and I was second overall while putting some
experts between me and the rest of the amatures. Well things were going
according to plan and going into the fast right hand turn 9 I could sense
that Scott was back there and coming strong. At this point I am catching an
expert rider very quickly and I was hoping to get a monster drive out of 9
and put this guy between us. As I dialed on the throttle and started pulling
hard I felt the back tire start to spin up and the next thought was to try
and get it to hook back up, but suddenly I was down and sliding on my back
and butt. I have never crashed at that high of a speed before, (top of 4th
gear on my aprilia 1000 ) I'm guessing 125 to 135 mph. WOW, that asphalt
gets hot, fast, at that speed, LOL!!!!!!! I thought to myself, just go
limp and ride/ slide it out. At some point in the slide, I remember thinking
that I had lucked out becuase I was nearly off of the track, and I had not
been hit or run over yet.(Did I mention that turn 9 at roebling is a FAST
turn?) Anyway, as I was sliding I was happy to see the rumble strip
approaching, hench I would be off the track and away from the hot, abrasive
asphalt,,, good thing right??? Well not so good, my left leg jammed into
the rumble strip and thus the tumble started. Well, when it was all over and
I stopped rolling I did the wiggle test and felt suprisingly OK, but I knew
right off that my leg was hurt. I looked around and saw Scott laying
motionless a few hundred feet away, (did I mention t9 is VERY VERY fast?) By
now I have realized that I wont be standing up anytime soon, and I started
waving franticaly across the track to the corner worker who to my dismay is
just standing there looking at me. After a few more attempts at trying to
get this guy to start waving some flags and alternately trying to crawl/drag
myself farther away from the track, He finally got out the red flag. Anyway
they attended to Scott and I pretty efficiantly and got us underway to the
butcher shop.
I too have to toss out a huge thanks to all the people that came to my
aid. The WERA officials and the ambulance drivers took really good care of
us.
I cannot say enough about the people that went over and packed up my
camp. It is a huge relief to know that in a stressfull time like that, for
my wife Sabrina, there are lots of folks around that genuinely care, and are
willing to do anything to help, so that she could head to the hospital to
meet me.

 

Prognosis, broken leg for Jerry.

 

Dang, a brake in/near the joint may cause problems later. Wishing the best :up:

 

glad you and scott are both goin to be OK! take it easy, kent.

 

It looked bad I wish you the best.

 

Glad your gonna be ok. I didn't realize it was you until I saw Sabrina leaving early.

Let us know if you need anything.

 

Thanks Stick, I appreciate it. I was having a good race there for a few laps. then I got a little impatient and was gonna wick it up and check out. But didnt quite work out that way. Anyway I have plenty of time to get Sabrinas bike built now. We'll catch you guys later though, prolly in the pits at Road A

 

We'll be hanging around. You have to at least stop by at Road A. We'll have th ebig truck there. You two can come over and act all factory and stuff.

 

Cool i'll bust a bead or two, if need be.

 

You may have busted enough stuff for a while. We'll let you just hang out and have fun.

 

Update: scott is doing pretty good. i work with him, and he is insistant on being there, helping with what he can. the story i got from him after he thought about it for a while is he thinks the other bike slid across the track and hit his back tire. his swingarm is all bent to hell. he doesnt know for sure what actually happened. his shoulder blade is broke, and he has his arm in a sling for now. he is a funny dude when medicated...(love ya man.) glad that nothing TOO serious went down.

later