Peter Brock injured at SCORE's off-road race

[Carl Beck]

Hello Everyone:

The following note is from Gayle Brock, Peter's wife: I forward it to you with her permission.

Carl B.

Gayle writes:

"Sat January 20th, while shooting SCORE’s season opening off-road race in Laughlin, NV, Peter was hit by an off-road vehicle that went off course. The upper part of his right leg was hit by the front tire of the vehicle, he did a 360 degree backward flip landing face down in the dirt and his right foot/ankle were then run over by the vehicle’s rear tire. Other photographers in the area and the SCORE rescue team were onsite within seconds. Thanks to help from Mark Post of the Riviera team and a recommendation from the Herbst family of the Terrible Herbst team, Peter was taken by helicopter from the regional medical center to the well-respected trauma center at the UMC (University Medical Center) in Las Vegas. His injuries involve primarily that right leg with a broken femur a couple of inches below the ball and socket of the hip, a break in the tibia just below the knee and a broken lower fibula and ankle. Surgery from 1am-4am Sunday involved placing a rod down the length of his femur and installing a plate with screws to reconstruct his lower leg and ankle area. This is capped off with a cast from his foot up to just below his knee. The surgeons are very happy with how everything aligned. In regards to the most explosive area of the ankle they said that once they secured the bone pieces to the plate with the screws they couldn’t even see where the breaks were anymore. As you already know from the description of the accident, we are incredibly lucky! this is the primary extent of his injuries. His hip and pelvis area are fine. His left leg is fine. His back is fine. His arms are fine. His face, neck and head are fine (with the exception of some road rash on the left side of his head/face which is almost entirely healed).

To those who’ve been asking about my experience, let me share that I was shooting in the infield when the accident occurred. The immediate response of the ambulance leaving the infield led me to suspect someone outside of a car had been injured (an unconscious driver in a car is not quite as apparent to onlookers as an unconscious photographer on the ground). I knew Peter was in that area and my anxiety rose when he did not respond to my calls to him on our 2-way radios. A few minutes later Peter’s voice came over the radio I was still unconsciously clutching in my hand: “Do you read me?” Upon my confirmation he relayed: “I’ve been hit. They’re putting me in the ambulance.” His voice was normal, clear and sound… and music to my ears. It’s a call Peter doesn’t remember making but I continue to thank him profusely for doing it, even if unconsciously. The call allowed me to report to the officials at the start/finish line who it was that had been injured and allowed them to get me in the ambulance. When the ambulance doors opened to let me in, there was Peter on the gurney chatting away with his hat on his head (yes… although the hat did not take the entire 360 degree trip, it lives and will be back soon to a race track near you! most namely the 12 hours of Sebring race). I’ve been able to stay with Peter the entire time and as always it’s an incredible pleasure and honor. In addition, Peter’s oldest son, Ian was at the race, along with his fiancée Nikki. They immediately spotted my “focused” actions in the infield and have been by at our side ever since. They allowed me to focus on Peter as they took care of everything else such as retrieving his equipment at the track, retrieving our rental car from the track and packing up our hotel room in Laughlin as I went with Peter to the Vegas trauma center. They followed us to Vegas and allowed me to take some needed breaks those first couple of days when otherwise I wouldn’t have left for even a minute. We are so blessed to have you and these great people in our lives.

Peter’s been in great spirits and we think we’ve discovered a great new talk show skit called Stupid Patient Tricks (if you haven’t heard of Stupid Pet Tricks before let me explain the Stupid refers to the Tricks and not to the Patient). Peter’s repertoire of stupid patient tricks grows every day and we should soon be ready for the talk show circuit (I say “we” as some of the best tricks require a partner). So as you can tell, we’re having a good time together, even under these circumstances.

Going forward, a femur break requires no weight be put on it for 2 months. In a couple of weeks Peter will be sporting around on crutches which will carry him thru that time period. After that he’ll gradually be able to increase the weight he can put on the leg. In the meantime, he’s really enjoyed catching up with friends on the phone (so feel free to call him. Good hours while he’s at the hospital are 6:30am to 9pm). There’s no internet access at the hospital so I’m sending this from a nearby Starbucks. It’s my first time online since the accident and I’m not sure when I’ll be online again. We want to thank everyone for their calls (and I’m sure there are e-mails waiting for us too) and the beautiful flowers which have begun to fill the hospital room here in Vegas are a real bright spot. At one point today Peter exclaimed: “They really do make the room look nice.” It’s all greatly appreciated!

And last night we got a special treat as we got a call from Daytona where in a meeting of the Road Racing Drivers Club they announced Peter had been inducted into the club as an honorary member (a decision that was made prior to the accident). The crowd was still clapping as the call came into Peter’s hospital room. Peter’s immediate response: “What an honor!”

We’ve started working with physical therapy here at the hospital and our goal is for Peter to be discharged Saturday at which point we’ll take a flight back to Seattle late that afternoon. He can’t wait to get back home and back online to all of you. I’d say he’s also anxious to get back to racing but he’s never left. His first call Monday was to an editor regarding a story idea and most, if not all, calls since have been racing related. He’s so totally committed to this sport and amongst other things it’s been great to see a young driver he’s believed in the last few years come to the hospital every night to visit him… every night. And you should see the light in his eyes every time this young talent enters the room. He’s thrilled to be able to give his “all” to this sport and we’re very lucky it wasn’t taken to the most extreme of meaning this last weekend. We want to thank all of you for your thoughts and well wishes. It means more than you can possibly imagine and we’re thinking of all of you too.

Best regards,

Gayle & Peter

[ggarrard]

Carl - Many thanks for making the connection for us with the Brock family. The report sounds very positive, and we wish Peter a full and speedy recovery.

GWGarrard

Pres, Thousand Island Zed Car Club

[bpilati]

Terrible!! Carl, give him our best.

[Ron Carter]

I sent Pete an email after reading the story in Vintage Motorsport.

http://www.vintagemotorsport.com/show_news.asp?id=836

I also spoke to Les Cannaday, who spoke to Gayle directly. She told Les that Pete's surgery went really well.

I am sure Pete will be up and around in no time at all, as he hates to sit still.

[WingZr0]

WHAT, NO IN FLIGHT MEAL ?! :cheeky:

Please send them my well wishes.

And tell him he can always use his left foot to hit the gas:)

~Z~

[jmark]

Good to hear he is doing well.

[zbane]

Everyone-this is just one of the many reasons to give blood.

It's great to read that the Brock family is pulling through this-it is hard to keep a good man down, I'm sure Mr. Brock will be up and about in no time.

[1 Bravo 6]

I'm glad to hear that Peter Brock is on the road to recovery. It's times like this that words of encouragement and knowing that even complete strangers are wishing him well will go a long way towards bollstering his spirits.

Rick.

[Mckrack]

I am sure that anyone and everyone wishes this individual a speedy recovery. I have read about this person and his accomplishements and I hope that this injury does not hamper him from participating in his craft in the future. Concern goes out to him and his family.

McKrack