RJRacing

During the Friday morning warmup, I had an incident involving one of our fellow competitors. At first I thought the damage to the car was fatal, but later was very thankful to learn the car was not only drivable but fixable.

I sustained a few injuries during the crash, which ended my racing for the weekend. Most serious was my wrist jammed against the steering wheel and began swelling up almost immediately and was very painful to move. And when jumping over the track kerbs, I felt pain in my tailbone and mid-back. I was checked out at the on-site medical facility who recommended visiting the local emergency room.

After visiting the ER, the good news is my wrist is not broken and I merely bruised my tailbone. The bad news is the x-ray revealed a compression fracture in one of my thoracic vertebrae. The ER doctor believed the fracture was already there when the crash happened and the crash aggravated it. Compression fractures will heal themselves with time so I’m on a course of pain medication, muscle relaxers and physical therapy. I should be back racing by our next race in October.

I wish the crash had never happened, but watching the team come together to fix the damage to the car was something to behold. And when I say “team” I’m referring to my brothers Tim and John. I was overwhelmed with emotion as the work on the car was being completed. I love my brothers and I feel so lucky to have them as teammates. I couldn’t imagine racing without them and I see great things in our future.

Everything is ready to go for our championship race tomorrow. We’re starting second which gives us a great opportunity for a podium finish and an outside shot at the win. Check back tomorrow for further updates.