Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

I've taken some pretty serious rides, from cars slamming into you mid flip, to practically breaking the car in half. The worst pain I've had is some soreness the next day. Usually they don't hurt that bad. The thing I usually experience right after a crash/during is diziness/disorientation. But that goes away pretty quick.

Hello, Im a long time race fan but pretty new to the sprint car world as far as following it closely.  Anyways I have raced asphalt street stocks and limited pro late models and the crashes really dont hurt that bad but from what Ive seen from videos it looks a sprint car crash is like 12 hits in one.  So I was just wondering if somebody who has expiernced a sprint crash could describe how it feels?  Are they ALL that bad, ring your bell lol, or are some flips not that bad? I really dont know why but I just wanted to know how it feels. I have no desire to race and find out for myself , way to old for that now, just curious!  Thanks

Roger Rager told me in an interview once that it's like having a buddy put you in a 55 gallon drum and kicking you out of the back of a pickup on the highway at 55 mph.

I know from reading Wolfgangs book, one thing that made me cringe (Outside of the explanation of the fire incident) was him explaining how back in the day the seat backs were only up to your mid back and it wasn't uncommon for you to be pushed up in the seat and your shoulder blades would go over the seat back and then another force would push you forward and you would break the tip of your shoulder blade. That just sounds painful.

ouch.. boy seats have come a long ways..  this is a topic sadly I have more experiances than I wish too, some proubly will not admitt it, kinda looks crappy on a resume.  but, whith that being said, overcoming a crash and getting a "w" makes it worth it.. maybe thats why wins are so special, the down side to this sport is against us. there can only be one winner, but, five wrecks arnt uncommon..  some of mine have been more violent than others, i raced IMCA sytle modifieds for a number of years and all thos incidents were minor as compaired to a winged sprint, the ones that hurt the most were at high speed larger tracks, one of my first turovers,  I had to get back in the car after we slid it back into the shop, I coudnt quite put my finger on what hit my upper leg? after a bit of confussion i put the wheel back on the gear, and found the steering wheel all bent to hell, i had actually punched my own leg I never let go of the wheel, amazing what happens that you dont even know about,and how much your body moves,   some instances ive been able to tuck my feet back, (tuck and roll type position I call it)  this is the best , the times i havent, ive held the brake and accidentally mashed the throttle, once you tence up and the engine roars, its tuff to remember to let your feet go, and by then you cant pitch them back quickly,  luckily the motor leans out and kills itself or dies due to locking the driveline,  one thing about rolling a sprint is you realize how heavy 1400lbs is, when the only extremities you can move are aside from your core it feels like someone walked up behind you with a Louisville g dam slugger and wacked you across the head. the impact is blinding, ive never been knocked out, but seriously close once, my worst wreck was in Knoxville, about mid way on front streach, the car did two forward revolutions in the air, and planted the front bumper in the track , the top wing ever hit the track, it was the most horrific impact ive ever felt in my life, i couldnt breath, but i was contious, i just got he air knocked out of me, the next moring in the Hotel i couldnt get outa bed,   two C T scans and several Xrays later I just had major bruising, I was pissing blood, when i arrived home to my hometown 24hrs later I woke up for work, i could walk up my staircase, but not down, the muscles were pulled so much i had to sit on my butt and slide down the stairs, at first i lauged, i rembered doing this as a kid, then laughter turned into pain, my chest was soar as hell... I didnt work for two weeks.. dr orders.  i continued to piss in a cup luckily my brother is a madical technologist he would check to see if my internals were healing up, my right eye looked like I had been in a bar room brawl, I had hit the side of the head restaint system hard enuff to completly compress the internals of my helmet and foam padding, i had a shiner and broken blood vessels in my eye for a month it looked pretty grousum.. Ive wrecked a few times but that was the worst to date, hopefully ive updated my safety enuff to keep much of that from happening again, and maybe if i hadnt updated routinely, I may have not been here to type this..

I've taken some pretty serious rides, from cars slamming into you mid flip, to practically breaking the car in half. The worst pain I've had is some soreness the next day. Usually they don't hurt that bad. The thing I usually experience right after a crash/during is diziness/disorientation. But that goes away pretty quick.

its like jumping on a trampoline twisting and turning in the air but when you land the tramp is gone

I know from reading Wolfgangs book, one thing that made me cringe (Outside of the explanation of the fire incident) was him explaining how back in the day the seat backs were only up to your mid back and it wasn't uncommon for you to be pushed up in the seat and your shoulder blades would go over the seat back and then another force would push you forward and you would break the tip of your shoulder blade. That just sounds painful.

ouch.. boy seats have come a long ways..  this is a topic sadly I have more experiances than I wish too, some proubly will not admitt it, kinda looks crappy on a resume.  but, whith that being said, overcoming a crash and getting a "w" makes it worth it.. maybe thats why wins are so special, the down side to this sport is against us. there can only be one winner, but, five wrecks arnt uncommon..  some of mine have been more violent than others, i raced IMCA sytle modifieds for a number of years and all thos incidents were minor as compaired to a winged sprint, the ones that hurt the most were at high speed larger tracks, one of my first turovers,  I had to get back in the car after we slid it back into the shop, I coudnt quite put my finger on what hit my upper leg? after a bit of confussion i put the wheel back on the gear, and found the steering wheel all bent to hell, i had actually punched my own leg I never let go of the wheel, amazing what happens that you dont even know about,and how much your body moves,   some instances ive been able to tuck my feet back, (tuck and roll type position I call it)  this is the best , the times i havent, ive held the brake and accidentally mashed the throttle, once you tence up and the engine roars, its tuff to remember to let your feet go, and by then you cant pitch them back quickly,  luckily the motor leans out and kills itself or dies due to locking the driveline,  one thing about rolling a sprint is you realize how heavy 1400lbs is, when the only extremities you can move are aside from your core it feels like someone walked up behind you with a Louisville g dam slugger and wacked you across the head. the impact is blinding, ive never been knocked out, but seriously close once, my worst wreck was in Knoxville, about mid way on front streach, the car did two forward revolutions in the air, and planted the front bumper in the track , the top wing ever hit the track, it was the most horrific impact ive ever felt in my life, i couldnt breath, but i was contious, i just got he air knocked out of me, the next moring in the Hotel i couldnt get outa bed,   two C T scans and several Xrays later I just had major bruising, I was pissing blood, when i arrived home to my hometown 24hrs later I woke up for work, i could walk up my staircase, but not down, the muscles were pulled so much i had to sit on my butt and slide down the stairs, at first i lauged, i rembered doing this as a kid, then laughter turned into pain, my chest was soar as hell... I didnt work for two weeks.. dr orders.  i continued to piss in a cup luckily my brother is a madical technologist he would check to see if my internals were healing up, my right eye looked like I had been in a bar room brawl, I had hit the side of the head restaint system hard enuff to completly compress the internals of my helmet and foam padding, i had a shiner and broken blood vessels in my eye for a month it looked pretty grousum.. Ive wrecked a few times but that was the worst to date, hopefully ive updated my safety enuff to keep much of that from happening again, and maybe if i hadnt updated routinely, I may have not been here to type this..

Those guys in the 80's were extra crazy! I cant imagine doing that.

80's? 80's! boy look back to late 60's earlie 70's and  there is footage of cageless cars rolling.. wow, I can imagine, no wonder they wrecked, they musta had Balls the size of grapefruit holding the throttle down, "man and his machine  no fear inbetween"..  any of the earie stuff makes you respect the past. even the mid 90's what we didnt know back then. man its come a long ways, and for the better.

ouch.. boy seats have come a long ways..  this is a topic sadly I have more experiances than I wish too, some proubly will not admitt it, kinda looks crappy on a resume.  but, whith that being said, overcoming a crash and getting a "w" makes it worth it.. maybe thats why wins are so special, the down side to this sport is against us. there can only be one winner, but, five wrecks arnt uncommon..  some of mine have been more violent than others, i raced IMCA sytle modifieds for a number of years and all thos incidents were minor as compaired to a winged sprint, the ones that hurt the most were at high speed larger tracks, one of my first turovers,  I had to get back in the car after we slid it back into the shop, I coudnt quite put my finger on what hit my upper leg? after a bit of confussion i put the wheel back on the gear, and found the steering wheel all bent to hell, i had actually punched my own leg I never let go of the wheel, amazing what happens that you dont even know about,and how much your body moves,   some instances ive been able to tuck my feet back, (tuck and roll type position I call it)  this is the best , the times i havent, ive held the brake and accidentally mashed the throttle, once you tence up and the engine roars, its tuff to remember to let your feet go, and by then you cant pitch them back quickly,  luckily the motor leans out and kills itself or dies due to locking the driveline,  one thing about rolling a sprint is you realize how heavy 1400lbs is, when the only extremities you can move are aside from your core it feels like someone walked up behind you with a Louisville g dam slugger and wacked you across the head. the impact is blinding, ive never been knocked out, but seriously close once, my worst wreck was in Knoxville, about mid way on front streach, the car did two forward revolutions in the air, and planted the front bumper in the track , the top wing ever hit the track, it was the most horrific impact ive ever felt in my life, i couldnt breath, but i was contious, i just got he air knocked out of me, the next moring in the Hotel i couldnt get outa bed,   two C T scans and several Xrays later I just had major bruising, I was pissing blood, when i arrived home to my hometown 24hrs later I woke up for work, i could walk up my staircase, but not down, the muscles were pulled so much i had to sit on my butt and slide down the stairs, at first i lauged, i rembered doing this as a kid, then laughter turned into pain, my chest was soar as hell... I didnt work for two weeks.. dr orders.  i continued to piss in a cup luckily my brother is a madical technologist he would check to see if my internals were healing up, my right eye looked like I had been in a bar room brawl, I had hit the side of the head restaint system hard enuff to completly compress the internals of my helmet and foam padding, i had a shiner and broken blood vessels in my eye for a month it looked pretty grousum.. Ive wrecked a few times but that was the worst to date, hopefully ive updated my safety enuff to keep much of that from happening again, and maybe if i hadnt updated routinely, I may have not been here to type this..

ouch.. boy seats have come a long ways..  this is a topic sadly I have more experiances than I wish too, some proubly will not admitt it, kinda looks crappy on a resume.  but, whith that being said, overcoming a crash and getting a "w" makes it worth it.. maybe thats why wins are so special, the down side to this sport is against us. there can only be one winner, but, five wrecks arnt uncommon..  some of mine have been more violent than others, i raced IMCA sytle modifieds for a number of years and all thos incidents were minor as compaired to a winged sprint, the ones that hurt the most were at high speed larger tracks, one of my first turovers,  I had to get back in the car after we slid it back into the shop, I coudnt quite put my finger on what hit my upper leg? after a bit of confussion i put the wheel back on the gear, and found the steering wheel all bent to hell, i had actually punched my own leg I never let go of the wheel, amazing what happens that you dont even know about,and how much your body moves,   some instances ive been able to tuck my feet back, (tuck and roll type position I call it)  this is the best , the times i havent, ive held the brake and accidentally mashed the throttle, once you tence up and the engine roars, its tuff to remember to let your feet go, and by then you cant pitch them back quickly,  luckily the motor leans out and kills itself or dies due to locking the driveline,  one thing about rolling a sprint is you realize how heavy 1400lbs is, when the only extremities you can move are aside from your core it feels like someone walked up behind you with a Louisville g dam slugger and wacked you across the head. the impact is blinding, ive never been knocked out, but seriously close once, my worst wreck was in Knoxville, about mid way on front streach, the car did two forward revolutions in the air, and planted the front bumper in the track , the top wing ever hit the track, it was the most horrific impact ive ever felt in my life, i couldnt breath, but i was contious, i just got he air knocked out of me, the next moring in the Hotel i couldnt get outa bed,   two C T scans and several Xrays later I just had major bruising, I was pissing blood, when i arrived home to my hometown 24hrs later I woke up for work, i could walk up my staircase, but not down, the muscles were pulled so much i had to sit on my butt and slide down the stairs, at first i lauged, i rembered doing this as a kid, then laughter turned into pain, my chest was soar as hell... I didnt work for two weeks.. dr orders.  i continued to piss in a cup luckily my brother is a madical technologist he would check to see if my internals were healing up, my right eye looked like I had been in a bar room brawl, I had hit the side of the head restaint system hard enuff to completly compress the internals of my helmet and foam padding, i had a shiner and broken blood vessels in my eye for a month it looked pretty grousum.. Ive wrecked a few times but that was the worst to date, hopefully ive updated my safety enuff to keep much of that from happening again, and maybe if i hadnt updated routinely, I may have not been here to type this..

WOW...That was a hell of a ride. The way you explained it you made me fell like I was in the car with you glad I was not. Also glad to hear you came back from that. Maybe this will make some fans that go to the races to see wrecks there is more to it than just a car flipping wildly on the track. Once again glad you came back from that.