Grassroots Motorsports

Crash-A-Rama Glory Jun 7, 2005

Well, another Crash-A-Rama is in the history books, and despite a few aches and pains, I came out just fine. My replacement bus ran well, and it’s durablity made up for it’s lack of raw speed. I actually finished the race (one of only 6 or 7 buses to do so). Although I had victorious daydreams of myself standing on top of the bus, trophy in hand, cape flowing in the wind behind my back, I had to settle for 4th or so out of 20 buses. Not too bad considering I started very far back in the pack— 18th or so. I now realize how much of an idiot I was for entering the race last year without proper safety gear. Thankfully last year’s bus had mechanical failure before I could hurt myself. This year’s bus had a nice 4 pt. harness, and I USED it! There were a couple of extremely hard hits, one of which remains eched into my memory where it will probably stay for a long long time.

I was heading into the “X” with about 10 of the 20 laps left. Early in the race, I had been smacked off course, so from that point on it was just a matter of holding my right foot onto the floor, and trying to make up ground. Anyway, I came off the high banking and into the “X” cleanly with a good amount of momentum. Going about 45 mph or so, I noticed a bus having trouble getting through the mud in the “X”. It had rained hard all evening, and the middle of the track was a muddy swamp. This guy was spinning his wheels in the mud, and was lined up just right for a massive T-Boning. I tried to go off to the right, but there was another bus in my way. After smacking the bus on my right, I made a last ditch effort to avoid the slow bus in front of me by going to my left. Well, I didn’t quite make it, and the front of my bus, and the driver’s side of his engine compartment hit with extreme force. My body was jolted against the harness, and my feet came off of the pedals momentarily until I regained my composure. It was the hardest I’ve ever hit anything before in my life. The impact, and jolt physically hurt, and the soreness in my chest, and neck, didn’t go away for a few days. Surprisingly, my bus was still running, although now my front end (the flip-clamshell type) was now dragging on the ground, and the start of what would be a major amount of smoke had started coming from the engine compartment. Still, the old bus kept going—and passing other buses! It actually ran pretty well until my driver’s side front tire got caught up in another bus’s bodywork, and was ripped to shreds. Just for the record, a schoolbus doesn’t turn or stop very well with a flat front tire on a muddy surface. I’m also very glad that I hadn’t hooked my fingers or thumbs on the steering wheel. When that front wheel got caught up in the other bus, the steering wheel was yanked from my hands, and surely would’ve broken a finger or thumb if they had been hooked. I took the checker with a smoldering, limping bus that barely made it back to the pits. But it did finish!

Thanks to Gabe, Noelle, Per, Kim, J.G, Dana, Scott +family, David, Michelle, and all of my other friends who came out to root me on. It was great to come around turn 4 and see everyone going wild!

Next time I’ll have a video camera along for the ride for sure…..and I’ll be going for the win!

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