Sears Point August, 19 2001
June: 3rd place 250P. Got taken out in 250SB. Ruined a nice helmet,
tore up some tendons in my elbows.
July: 2nd place 250P. Crashed in Fri practice on overheated tires.
Sprained ankle, twisted bike, bonked Phil’s helmet.
August: Is my Karma deficit paid up yet?
Did I ruin yet another helmet? Read-on:
This would be a deciding race for my run at the 2001 250 Production championship.
I needed to win all three remaining races in order to be class champ this year.
The odds didn’t look good, but there once was a stretch where I won 3 out of 4 races
(race #8 of 2000 through race #3 of 2001), so it didn’t seem impossible.
I was looking forward to riding the abridged version of Sears Point.
The original version has given me a lot of trouble over the last 4 years,
so I thought any change would be a good change.
It turns out that I did like the new configuration and set the fastest 250P lap
on Friday with a 1:32.07, barely nudging out Robert’s 1:32.1
by a statistically insignificant 0.03 seconds.
Saturday Robert dropped into the 1:31’s, but I couldn’t do better than low 1:32’s
in spite of getting a few corners sorted out better than ever before.
Race day. After months of bad starts I finally got a good start
and led the race into turn one... er... uh... turn 7.
Heading into turn 9 Robert stuffed it up the inside and killed my drive.
Robert’s drive was even worse than mine, and as I slipped back under him
I saw his tires drop off into the dirt. In the lead again, I wanted to look back
so bad, to see if he saved it, but figured I would find out soon enough.
All weekend it was surprising to see how brave people were in this brand new corner (9).
Robert had seen me go through this corner a number of times this weekend,
however, so he had a pretty good idea of what line I was using. For the most part,
I found it difficult to predict what lines people would take through the new turn 9.
Entered the carousel, still leading, I could see someone else’s shadow
on the pavement just behind me. Earlier that day, I finally sorted out a good line
through the carousel. This time I found myself exiting at full lean all the way out
to the paint. Something’s wrong, I’m too wide...hmmmmm...
13.5k RPM instead of 11.5k... oh... I’m just going really fast, that’s what’s wrong.
In spite of achieving best-ever-carousel-exit-speed Robert passed me anyway,
but was out-powered by mighty little Tonka before turn 7.
I made it into turn seven without being out braked. Whew! Between the first
and second apex of turn 7 corner I see Robert swinging around my outside
then diving into the curb. I have to shut off the drive I’ve already started,
to avoid contact. Somehow I still run up his tail section into 8 but he stretches
out into 8a. I set up wide, on the brakes for nine, planning a pass on Robert
in turn 1. A shot of adrenaline runs through me as I see a bike appear on my left,
where there is no room for a bike to be. Oh shit! We make contact and my left bar
gets inadvertently jammed forward (speculation), throwing the bike down
on it’s left side, (though I was about to enter a right hand turn).
I tumbled end over end for what seemed like forever. On the last tumble I landed
more-or-less vertical, on my feet, and sort of stumbling forward.
Guided by the turn workers I hopped out of the impact area and then laid down
behind a section of k-wall. The turn workers were amazed that I tumbled that much
and didn’t want to be transported.
As soon as I got my glove off, I could tell that the little finger on my left hand
was pointing the wrong way when I closed my hand. After the race, I hopped
on my left foot over to the ambulance and asked one of the EMTs if he could
re-locate my finger. He wouldn’t do it, but told me "I can tell you how to do it yourself
though" ... "Just pull really hard. It will hurt like hell."
I took advantage of the temporary numbness and pulled "really hard".
It didn’t work, so I tried harder. Still not pointing the right direction.
At the time I thought if I could just get my finger straight I might be able
to rationalize not going to the ER again. I could tell my right ankle was sprained.
Luckily my left ankle just came back to full strength from last month’s sprain,
so I’ve still got one good leg.
This year’s run at the championship is done for me.
I still plan to finish out the season, but will be using the races to prep for
next year, rather than chasing points.
Update: Now 4 days after the crash. My little finger was pinned together last night
by Dr. King. I’m still on crutches for my sprained right ankle.
Tailbone is bruised, and right elbow is purple and squishy but not broken.
Most importantly, Vicodin* rocks!
(*this race report, edited under the influence).
Sears Point weekends are going to be different for me from now on,
and it has nothing to do with the crash. Some of you know that on
SP race weekends I stay in Napa with my friend Bill Smith, a retired judge,
who lived in the neighborhood where I grew up. Well, this weekend Bill
didn’t return my messages about what time I would be there, so I returned home
to SF at night. Tuesday evening, his next-door neighbors returned the phone messages
I left on Bill’s machine, and let me know that Bill had passed away
a few weeks ago. Godspeed to you Bill,
you were a friend and an inspiration.
-Paul Somerville
#311