It's taken me a whiles to look at my images from the entire weekend. To put things in perspective. As a motorcycle rider who was seriously injured, and almost died as a result of being hit on the road by a drunk driver when I was 16, I looked at the ambulances, the medical paraphernalia that was being deployed after not even a half of the first lap of Sunday mornings Red Bull Rookie Cup race and the first thought that came to mind was, you know, when you have a motorcycle accident you either don't know what happened (re: you're unconscious), your either look at the ground because that's the way you end up, or you look at the sky (again because that's the way you end up). Subsequently, you either watch feet run towards you, or you have lots of people fussing over you in this totally surreal "am I going to die" feeling akin to coming out of anesthetic where the nurse will gently tap your face and go "c'mon Andrew, wake up, wake up"...or you simply have no clue because.
In this image, the first ambulance on the left, a little 14 year old racer is being transferred to ultimately be taken taken on his last journey. Sadly, the 14 year old Bermudan was seriously injured and died of his injuries following an accident on the first lap of the Red Bull Rookies cup. When one knows what happens, the length of time it takes to do "things", watching the little guys leathers being cut off, and if this has happened to you, you know that things aren't going to turn out well. What struck me as this little boy, with huge dreams was being wheeled into the ambulance was the laughter and cheer cheer coming over the PA, obviously unbeknownst to the MC of the event. But for me, it just seemed so odd. It wasn't even sunny, it was grey, and less than two hours before I took a photo of this potential champ doing what he loved. Sorry to be so gloomy, but as I wrote a whiles ago, I still maintain I wish I had this opportunity when I was a kid.
My thoughts, love and karma go to his parents. Also to Kevin Schwantz. Just spending 10 minutes in his prescence chatting with these kids could see they meant something special to him and the knowledge he imparted was priceless.
I leave for Atlanta early tomorrow morning 8/28. See you there.
..on a lighter note and to give you something a little happier to leave with, I spent a nice hour or so chatting with Eric on Rumblestrip Radio this morning about what I do...if you've got an Ipod and want a podcast and wonder what someone who comes from the West Country of England sounds like, click the link...!
