near Houston. We went on down to
where there was zero traffic. It was
a four lane and we came to a traffic
light. I’m in the left-hand lane, he’s
in the right. No one’s in front. Two
cars behind, what the heck. So I hit
my trans brake and I’m standing
there building it up. I was going to
really put it to him and the light
turned green. Right as I hit third
(gear), I transitioned from good,
fresh pretty good hooking asphalt,
to old, old shiny asphalt. Right when
I transitioned is right where my
memory is gone. I had a head injury
in the accident, but the car left the
road. I hit sort of a ditch to my right
so I crossed in front of the other car,
but he was so far behind me, the
witnesses only thought it was one
car involved in the incident as
opposed to two cars street racing. I
shot down this ditch. I ended up in
a much bigger ditch. It destroyed my shows mentally I was still acting like
car completely. It took out my right a child from time to time, being
knee, which I had to have replaced. egged on when I shouldn’t have
My right hip had to be replaced. been and doing something on a
Broke my back, broke all my ribs on public highway that I should not
the left side, had a dual frontal lobe have been doing. So it slowed me
bleed and I severed almost com- down considerably.
pletely my right wrist. I was lucky. I
was life-flighted. They took me to SRM: You certainly appear to have
the trauma center in downtown recovered very well from that ordeal
Houston. They saved my life. I scared - thankfully. Despite that incident and
my family half to death, scared my the racing-related trials and tribula-
wife to death. She had heard I’d been tions anyone in the sport faces and,
killed in the accident, and so it was hopefully, survives - you’re pro-
a real tragedy. I was in the hospital longed success behind the wheel
for over a month. I was in rehab for and passion for performance is in-
almost three weeks and I was at spiring. What’s the secret?
home for another four- or five-
months, recovering. It was a pretty BH: You know, an old lesson is to run
big deal. No matter how good of a your own race, don’t try to play
driver you are, a car can get away games. You don’t need to get in the
from you, so that was my lesson. I other guys head. That will cause you
was 66 when that happened, so it to lose your rhythm. Maintain your
rhythm, drive your own race and just
be consistent. If you can master that
and be consistent, the odds of you
winning are much, much greater,
and that’s the same philosophy I’ve
applied to the Texas Invitational and
the King of the Street shootout. I
play no games. If you ever see videos
of what I’m doing inside the cockpit,
you don’t see my head popping back
and forth to the left. You don’t see
my car lurching forward, backing off,
lurching forward. Well, a lot of guys
do that and they’re trying to get in
your head. And the problem is for
them is they don’t realize, I don’t
care what they’re doing. It doesn’t
bother me a bit. I am simply running
my race and that’s what I do every
single time.
SRM: From our perspective, amongst
the most impressive parts of the
SPRING2018
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