Oops! Wrecked on whoops!

[KRMit]

Last Saturday was my first race... arenacross. First practice went fairly well although I was going a little slower than everyone else. The whoops on this track were like nothing I've ever seen. The first couple were kinda short, but then after that they jacked way up. Well on the first lap of the second practice I figured I'd see how fast I could get through there. I jumped the first two or three and my rear tires clipped one of the peaks. The quad donkey-kicks in the air, then the front end catches the next peak. That sent me straight over the bars with my bike tumbling after. I rolled a couple times then I remember thinking "the Banshee is after me". BOOM! It flipped and landed right side up with the rear axle on my helmet. I didn't think I was all that hurt, I just couldn't do anything to get the quad off of me. Someone ran down from the stands and tossed it off of me. Now there's a huge bruise on my leg and big gash in my helmet from the sprocket. Anyway, I went on to get third in the heat race and pull third out of ten in both motos. I thought I did pretty good since I was injured, missed a practice, and it was my first race. My stock bars were bent to hell after the wreck. I could barely ride it off the track. I was lucky a shop was setup at the track so I got a set of Pro Tapers. A friend of mine also wrecked on the whoops and broke 3 bones in his back. A kid on a dirtbike lost control going through them and shot over the berm into a wall. Whoops suck!

 

Anyway, lesson learned. I'll always wear a helmet now.