Blackhawk Farms – Rockton, Illinois
Blackhawk is the home of my very first accident in a race car – it was the first race of the season and I had led much of the race. The 2nd place driver made a last lap move on the outside going into turn six and moved me over onto the inside curb, I caught my inside wheels on the back side of the curb and initiated a slow half roll onto my roof and slid across the track upside down into the gravel trap. The gravel promptly broke the windshield and entered the car and pretty quickly my head was stuck in gravel. It took me a while to get myself out of that as the car was pretty filled up with gravel.
My most poignant memory of that incident at Blackhawk, though is the ambulance ride back. My mom and sister were at the race as it’s a short drive from Munster. I was ok and the ambulance driver asked me if I wanted to ride up front. Sure, no problem. As we were headed back to Medical, I see my mom and sister walking towards us down the side of the main infield road. They had seen me go by in the lead and then I hadn’t come around again.
As we approached them, my mom looked up at the ambulance and I waved at her. I distinctly remember her slowly raising her hand to return my wave with this super quizzical look on her face. My mom was a public health nurse and she’d seen everything. She later said that it took a second to recognize me and then she said that she figured if I was in the front of the ambulance, that I was probably ok. Nothing to worry about then. Mom’s a legend.