Just got back from a weekend at the race track. (I sometimes work as a corner marshal for one of the local road racing organization.) This weekend was an eye-opener.

When people ask me why I race, the old biker adage pops to mind. "I don't race to add days to my life, I race to add life to my days." James Hunt once said something about race-car drivers being more alive because of their closeness to death. It's a truth, there is nothing more exciting to me than strapping into an absolute monster with ten to twenty gallons of high octane race fuel under your ass and going around a track at extreme speeds. I prefer it over sex, over drugs, whatever.

...

I don't know if the driver is okay. I don't know anything about his condition. He hit oil and then wall at the highest speed section of the track. We shut the race-day down entirely and they were going to put him in a chopper and take him to a trauma center, but his condition wasn't stable enough to survive the flight. He ended up at a local hospital until they deemed him stabilized enough to send the the trauma center...

That was Saturday, today continued on as if nothing had happened. Nobody is allowed to say anything to anybody for legal reasons, I just want to know if the driver is still alive you know? He was a young guy, out there in the driver's education series getting to pretend to be a real race-car driver. I'm sure the world completely stopped for his family, they were there and got told nothing as he was cut out of the car and placed into the ambulance.

I've been flagging and attending these events for three years now, I've seen cars explode into flames, flip, get crushed into unrecognizable hunks of steel, but the driver always stepped out and walked away.

Idunno, I'm just kind of in shock at the moment.

I mean, it doesn't change much for me, I'm still gonna be back there in a month, just doing what I've been doing.... But jeez... To see that happen to a young guy, who was in the education series, (Which is slow and 'safe'{compared to the actual race-groups}) I don't know man, I just don't know. Life is a fragile thing, enjoy every second you've got on this earth...

I apologize for rambling... I think it's time for sleep...


[Edit] The driver passed away in the hospital today... I'm completely numb right now...