On May 12th of this year our friend Adam suffered a simple low-side in Loudon’s Turn 2. He tumbled out towards the air-fence, destined for scuffed leathers and a lesson learned just like so many before him. New Hampshire International Speedway has never been famous for motorcycle racing safety; just the opposite in fact. NHIS’s bad reputation, combined with an oversized serving of bad luck for Adam left him changed for the worse. There are a lot of fancy words that people go to school for a long time to learn that could better describe the extent of his injuries, but here are the basics: he hit the top of his head on the bike as it bounced off the wall and compressed his spine, breaking three vertebrae in the thoracic region (middle) of his back.  One fractured, and the other two burst to the point that it meant taking out what was left and replacing it with more bone.

Multiple surgeries later, Adam had sacrificed a chunk of his hip and most of one rib to aid his body in re-growing the missing pieces of his spine. The grafts and ‘mulching’ of bones were helped along by large amounts of titanium; some used for rods that align the middle of his back, and some in the form of cages built around the most damaged areas to help encourage bone growth. The work of the surgeons has for the most part been met with great relief for Adam and everyone around him. He is currently able to walk without the aid of a cane or a brace, and he hopes to be back at work soon.

His struggle towards recovery from these injuries has not come to an end though, and probably never will. The pain he feels in his back when he performs simple tasks is annoying, as is fighting off the after-effects of months of nauseating antibiotics. He will also have a hard time forgetting things like the pulmonary embolism (look it up) that he suffered through post-surgery; not to mention the reduced mobility that will affect his livelihood forever.

As it is with every crash, it could have been worse. He escaped fatal infections during surgery, paralysis, and extensive damage to his spinal cord. His accident does serve as a very real reminder for all of us that the simplest mistake in racing can have vast consequences, and that we are all lucky to live each day the way we please. Adam also escaped this horrifying ordeal without bitterness; he has adopted a very humble ‘oh well’ attitude on racing, and still sees it for all of the positive things it has done for him. It is precisely for that reason that we at NHF Racing are glad that he is around; after all he has been through, he makes our sport look good.