[1121]

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

[Non wing lover]

Thanks Tom for your reply continued prayers for you

[Charles Nungester]

Keep getting better Tom. Hope you fully recover.

[racegal]

Thoughts and prayers for a full recovery, Susan

[Stevensville Mike]

Ouch. We all knew you were roughed up quite a bit, but once you start describing it.....

I'll tell you what you told me a few days ago: Good luck, Tom, and listen to those doctors.

[jonboat15]

Glad to hear that you are on the road to recovery. I have a couple of things to ask about your accident if you don't mind? Did another car or part from a car enter your roll cage to cause your injuries? If so, would a wind screen or some other device have possibly prevented your injuries? Get well soon!

[Bostonian]

Glad to hear your healing up. Sounds like you took quite the pounding. I think your right to say what you did about making the sport safer. Look at what some NHRA teams did for the drivers of Top Fuel cars with the covered driver compartment. At first, I was like, *** is that. Now I'm like, why don't more teams/drivers have it? I grew up having to watch USAC racing on ABC Wild World of Sports. Don't ask when that was! For someone who has lived less than 2 miles away from the ocean, watching AJ, Mario, and the Unsers etc, racing on dirt was a utopia feeling for me, throw in the Indy 500 and I was happy. My white-collar executive Father thought I must have been hit in the head too many times at hockey practice (goalie) He just never understood it. We don't have dirt racing around here unless you drive 3 hours each way. You all should feel lucky and realize how good you have it. I wish I had the choices you all have. By the way. I found this message board when I was trying to find out how to get a job in racing. Wow time flies. Enjoy the racing