My Crash at Blackhawk Farms

[SGTJimbo_Kat600]

Last Wednesday I was at Blackhawk Farms Raceway for the Jason Pridmore Star School National Guard day. I learned a lot, improved some things I had been struggling with. Got to follow and get feedback from James Rispoli for a good part of a session. Great time!

Then things kind of went the other way. Coming off the straightaway I hit the apex of turn one and the guy in front of me lowsides, I (even though I know better) grabbed front brake and tucked the front...hard. So across the tarmac I slide. Come to a rest and realized something wasn't right....collar bone. Then helped one of the instructors stand my bike up. Pretty much confirmed in my mind, yup its broke.

Walk over to Medical and am given the opportunity to visit the local hospital after a fun ride in the ambulance. After several xrays, and 5 hours waiting....

Confirmed non-displaced clavicle fracture.

Slit happens. If you play, sometimes you pay. Stupid mistake so now I am out of the game for 6-8 weeks.

On a good note, the Star School is excellent. So glad I went, even considering the crash. Jason explains things very well, the instructors do a great job of providing valuable feedback. I would recommend it to anyone.

And thank you Greg White for giving me a ride back from the hospital.

And a shoutout to the track community, when I got back from the hospital all of my gear was loaded, the bike was on the trailer tied down.

Then came the 5 1/2 hour drive home with a broken collar bone. Lets just say it sucked, no pain pills and my innate ability to find every bump in the road. But i made it home in one piece.

I am posting this so someone else can learn and hopefully avoid the same mistake I made.

With Video http://youtu.be/-TvLiQh9wm0

[Scout]

Sorry about the crash. Glad you're ok, bro. At least you did it on the track, not a public road.

[superbike]

Dangit Jimbo, that sucks! I hope your re-hab and recovery goes quickly. I met Greg White at Mid-Ohio a few years back, he's a class act. I've read nothing but good things about Star School... I enjoyed your video. I was at Blackhawk Farms only once during my SCCA days and was struck by the tire walls around the trees, flag stands and along the barriers. How the hell did you drive through Chicago, pulling a trailer, with a broken collar bone? Heal up my friend! Racers are good peeps...

[SGTJimbo_Kat600]

Dangit Jimbo, that sucks! I hope your re-hab and recovery goes quickly. I met Greg White at Mid-Ohio a few years back, he's a class act. I've read nothing but good things about Star School... I enjoyed your video. I was at Blackhawk Farms only once during my SCCA days and was struck by the tire walls around the trees, flag stands and along the barriers. How the hell did you drive through Chicago, pulling a trailer, with a broken collar bone? Heal up my friend! Racers are good peeps...

Sometimes you just gotta suck it up and do what has to be done. It sucked, not gonna lie, especially without pain meds.

But hey shit happens. Heal up, take the lesson and move on.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2

[steves]

Glad to hear you are okay Jim. How come you were on the Kawi and not the Gix?

[SGTJimbo_Kat600]

It had been raining. I had race tires and no warmers on the gixxer. So rode the zed-x

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[steves]

Ah, gotcha. I just so happen to know of a raffle for some tire warmers going on right now

[SGTJimbo_Kat600]

Hmmmmm and where might this be?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[steves]

http://katriders.com/vb/showthread.php?t=131209

[Sasquatch]

Glad your not seriously injured Jim. Hope you heal up well, and get back into the game.

[curseboy]

Having a rider crash right in front of you can be dicey. So is riding home with a broken bone or concussion or anything like that.

Hard to tell from the video, but it looks like there are a few late or missed apexes (it could be a fisheye lens effect.) On a track that tight, that would make it hard to find an escape route if something happens right in front of you.

[SGTJimbo_Kat600]

Having a rider crash right in front of you can be dicey. So is riding home with a broken bone or concussion or anything like that.

Hard to tell from the video, but it looks like there are a few late or missed apexes (it could be a fisheye lens effect.) On a track that tight, that would make it hard to find an escape route if something happens right in front of you.

I could have tightened it up and rode inside, just reacted instead if thinking. My mistake. Just going it helps someone else.

[rockat]

Nice video; excpet for the crash and all. Happened so fast. Would you lean in further on that turn if you could replay it? I'm assuming that the dude in front of you would continue sliding outside.

Never mind my post. I just saw that you said you should have rode inside.

[ygolohcysp]

I had a rider go down directly in front of me on my last track day. They saw how sharp the turn was and panicked, got on the brakes too hard, and it was slick due to cold track surface already anyway. Compounding the mistake was that they instinctively tried to apex early, thinking it was helping them. That meant after they lowsided, they were sliding right through the proper line to the proper apex. That time, I had to stand the bike up and hit the brakes till he slid past my line that kept getting wider and wider. Once he slid far enough, I layed the bike down and turned hard (but slow at that point) to avoid the outside of the corner. Once I realized what was happening, I had to concentrate on keeping my vision focus above the rider/bike towards where I wanted to go so I could still see him sliding, but it wasn't my focus.

It had gotten very close for me on that occasion.

Glad you're okay Jimbo! Sucks about the broken bone, but at least it wasn't any worse.

[tdecker]

That is on my top ten list of things not to do! Glad it wasn't worse! Good luck!