2025 CVMA Round 6, The Non Round
Track:
Chuckwalla Valley Raceways, Desert Center, CA
Date:
March 20, 2025
Results:
Many bruises and a battered motorcycle.
Summary
On March 20, 2025, in the second session of practice, I was involved in a collision on the first flying lap that caused me to exit the course at a high rate of speed with one other rider. The bike data shows a 5G impact. I am sore but will recover. I escaped without broken bones and a mild concussion. Bike disassembly and reassembly will be underway shortly.
My KYT helmet did an outstanding job. I had tire impacts on each side of my chin, a hard object struck the rear of my helmet. While I did experience a loss of consciousness, I’d call that a win considering the absolute severity of this incident. Read on if you want more detail…
The Longer Story
It was about 0930 on Friday, March 20, 2025. I’d been on track for 15 minutes in an earlier session. I’d finished my out lap and was on a flyer. Not super fast, but working on bike placement, vision, to enable further pace improvements throughout the course of the day. As I came out of turn 12, “the slide” towards turn 13, “the bowl”, a rider attempted to pass me on the outside. As best I can figure they were quite a bit far right to pull this off; they were attempting to place their bike on the same position I was going to occupy as I set up entry to the bowl. I didn’t know they were to my left until the contact. At this part of the track you are generally already looking at the curb on the entry to the bowl to get direction and set up one of the faster corners of the track. The moment their bars touched mine, we set the stage for an unpleasant adventure.
When we impacted, traveling around 86 mph, my left bar and his right bar entwined. I was able to separate my bike from theirs, but not without exiting the racing surface. Off track, you lose most of your stopping power. I was using the rear brake as much as I could, engaging, increasing pressure until it started to move, releasing a bit, and reengaging. The data shows I reduced to around 66 mph. Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware that not far off of the bowl, there is a ravine that is about 1-2 feet deep. When I saw that I thought “well, this is going to suck!”. I hit the far side of the ravine with my front wheel, and remember beginning to lunge forward, start disconnecting from the bike and soaring through the air, and woke up lying on the ground. I was unconscious for a very short period of time. The data shows that the lap computer experiences 5G of acceleration change. In the graphics that follow green was my initial lap of the session, red indicates the incident lap.
I run a camera on my motorcycle, unfortunately it seems the incident was too much for it. I have a file that ends before the incident and another that starts right as it ended:
This is the last frame of the before file, it’s about where the contact started, maybe a short bit after.
And this is the beginning of the next video. My camera had detached from the motorcycle and was laying up trackside near me.
When I got up, I ran to the other rider. He was yelling and in pain. He wasn’t getting up. I signaled for an ambulance and told the other rider to stay down. It turns out being a track marshal has some benefits of training.
The folks with Apex Assassins/CVMA Racing were awesome. They dealt with the other rider and I in quick order. The other rider received medical attention, they loaded up both bikes and we headed back to the pits. I went to see the medics after, as did the other rider. He was very apologetic which I appreciated. I know he didn’t intend for it to happen. The medics with CVMA are top notch, gave me a full eval, and checked on me throughout the day. Thanks y’all.
Where things ended up. My health, my gear, the bike.
I am rough for the wear and have a number of injuries. Most bits of me have bruising. The worst of it is my neck and rib/core. The muscles all got a very good workout. A few days later and concussion symptoms have subsided, which is incredible.
My KYT helmet did an amazing job. Seriously. I was struck on both sides of my chin by tires, hit the back of my head on something VERY hard. While I was concussed, I don’t think there is any way that wasn’t going to happen. The tire that hit my helmet also abraided my neck resulting in what I can only describe as the worst ever razor burn.
As far as my suit went, it turns out dirt is far less abrasive than asphalt. This suit has seen the pavement already and it was mostly just dusty.
I nearly lost a boot sole on my right foot. That’s a new one!
The bike took its own beating.
The bike has some damage, though given the impact I think it’s about what is expected. The bodywork on the right side took a great deal of abuse. The front fairing stay is rather bent on that side, even though the bodywork bunch straight through.
The most obvious damage is the front wheel.
It seems the impact it took resulted in the cast wheel failing. A chunk of the wheel is somewhere in the desert now.
Once the bike is back in the garage in Seattle, a more thorough teardown will happen, more is sure to surface, and I’ll start rebuilding to be ready for the race series in the PNW.