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This morning, Non Wing Lover asked me how I’ve been feeling. And I’ve been thinking about how to answer all day.
It’s not that my health is that difficult of a question to answer, it’s how I wanted to answer that was the problem. You see, for most of my adult life, and especially since I’ve been racing, after I get home from work I either work on the house or work out in the garage. It’s rare that I get to bed before midnight only to turn around and do it all again the next day. But since my accident in June, I just haven’t been able to do that, so I’ve spent a lot of time either watching TV or surfing the internet. Because of that, I’ve spent more time on IOW. And recently, two topics have really got me worked up, but I have hesitated to respond. So finally, I decided that I would broach all three topics at one time. But I didn’t want to hijack the Anderson thread, so I decided to start one of my own. I’m a little embarrassed that after posting on the Anderson thread about how great pavement racing is going that I didn’t go to watch. But for the first time since I got hurt, I was actually doing some work (admittedly light weight work) out in the garage and I just lost track of time. It seemed like I just got started and all of a sudden it was too late to leave for Anderson.
The first subject is my health. In another week, it will be four months since my accident. While the doctors seem pleased with my progress, I’m frustrated that it is going so slow. But overall, I’m doing well and it’s rare that I need my cane to walk anymore.
The next topic is the Four Crown. I have been attending the Four Crown for about the last ten years. It’s one of my three favorite races. The other two are the Little 500 and the Chili Bowl. Normally I camp for both days, but this year I only went Saturday. I think the crowd was the largest since I have started attending. I went with a friend of mine and he is definitely more of a non-winged fan than a winged fan. After the All Star feature, he turned to me and said, “That was a pretty good race.” I turned back to him and stated, “And yet someone will be on Indiana Open Wheel tomorrow complaining about it.” Sometimes I hate when I’m right.
You guys that hate winged racing certainly have the right to your opinion. I just feel sorry for you that you can have a really good race right in front of you and you can’t bring yourself to enjoy it.
The third item is the new wind screens on the Indy cars. I’ve been around racing my whole life, and this was my 30th year of driving a race car, all of it in sprint cars. I’m as old school as they come.
On June 14th of this year, I was involved in an accident in my sprint car. It broke my back. They had to fuse vertebrae T6 through T10. The scar on my back is over a foot long. I broke five ribs on my right side and two ribs on my left side. I also had a collapsed lung. I have had some level of discomfort every day since then.
Call me a wimp or a “prima donna”, but if any of you think for one minute that if I could go back in time, add something as simple as a wind screen and make all this go away that I wouldn’t do it, you are nuttier than a squirrel turd! Safety wins over looks every time.
Thank you all for your time and for reading this.
Tom Paterson
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