Trust Your Gut Episode 2: Dirt Sky Dirt Sky

I race rally cars. Fast. On open roads in various countries with very dangerous roadways. My driver (I'm the navigator) and I both know the risks and realize that every race we begin may be our last. 

Day 3 of a 3-day race and we were going to be driving down very twisty roads hugging the walls of a canyon and then back up again. Obviously, this is a full race car situation with a roll cage and helmets and HANS devices and window nets and 5-point harnesses and whatnot. Some people also use arm restraints. I've never liked them because they make it hard to turn the pages of the route book.

I have arm restraints and I keep them in my gear bag but I never use them. Right before we started the speed stage I thought, "You know...I wish I'd brought my arm restraints. Better safe than sorry, right?" But I didn't, so...

So, of course, the last speed stage before service, we rolled the car. Hit some gravel on a very tight turn, and my driver instinctually decided to slam us into a boulder on the cliff wall side at 75mph instead of trying to correct which wouldn't have worked out well, I'm sure, and tossing us off the road and into the canyon. Even with our safety equipment, it's likely we would not have survived. I mean, we wouldn't have.

As soon as I realized what was happening, I tucked my arms in between my body and my aluminum race seat as far back as I could, which is probably what kept my arms from flailing around and hitting the ground and rocks, even through the netting. Arm restraints may have helped but maybe not, since I would have had them extended out further so I could hold the book. 

If I'd had them with me, would I have put them on? Yes. Did I end up needing them? Yes. How I managed to find a solution to keep my arms safe in a split second is beyond me, besides that fact that I'd played out all of the possible scenarios in my head over and over during the several years we've done this race, so I kinda knew what to do without thinking.

This one turned out okay. Next time, it might not. But what I will say is that there are a few speed stages where I think I'll be wearing those arm restraints no matter what from here on out. Scared? Hell, no. We're already preparing for a race in October if the driver's back is stable enough and gets clearance from the doctor to race. If not, I guess we'll wait until next April. I can't imagine them banning him from racing ever again. Many of our friends have gone through way worse and got back in a race car pretty quickly.

Trust your gut. It could save you from serious injury in a case like this. I got lucky but will never make the mistake again of leaving out a piece of safety gear due to its slight inconvenience. I'll make it work.

My x-rays show I am...