Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
Interview by David Swarts
Parts Unlimited/PJ1/Erion Honda-sponsored Kurtis Roberts has been out of the public eye since his crash, and resulting injuries, during qualifying for the California Speedway Superbike race April 5. Roberts attended the Sears Point round May 3-5 and took a moment to speak to Roadracingworld.com about his injury and predicted recovery and return to racing.
Roadracingworld.com: How’s it going?
Kurtis Roberts: It’s going slowly and we’ll back on the bike as soon as it’s 100% and my fitness is back. I had a lot of problems there. I was taking a lot of stuff and it screwed my system up to where I didn’t want to eat or anything. So I’ve lost some weight from the whole thing, just because all of the pain pills and stuff I was on there for a few weeks and laying in bed all day long. I mean, this week is the first I’ve really done anything. I just started walking on the thing three days ago.
We’re going to hit it hard this week and hopefully get some mobility back in the thing. Start riding a Honda XR100 and a motocross bike and be back before we actually planned on.
RW: Tell us about the crash.
KR: I’ve fallen off a few times in testing this winter, and I can’t say enough about some of the sponsors I have. I crashed at Fontana (during testing in January) fourth gear wide open and my Teknic leathers protected me perfectly in a long slide on the banking.
Then the qualifying crash at Fontana was the worst crash I’ve ever went through. The whole time it just hurt so bad, I was just, ‘Somebody just come out here and shoot me.’ I couldn’t move, and usually I’m the last guy to get up on a stretcher, the last guy to let them pull my helmet off. ‘I can walk off anything,’ is what my brain always tells me. I never liked to be the guy to get in the ambulance and get on the stretcher, because if I do that I know I’m hurt. And I was letting them take my helmet off, they’re holding my neck and I just laying there AHHHH and trying to breathe.
Even when I was with my old helmet company, I still got headaches every time I’ve hit my head. I hit my head so hard (in the Fontana crash) and that thing was so unbelievable. I didn’t get anything. It’s such a testament to the Shoei product. It’s unbelievable! I still look at that. It’s one of the things I look at, how hard I hit my head, and not have a headache or anything. You should see the helmet and how it’s ground down all over.
RW: So what actually happened?
KR: A lot of people said that they had problems with the Qs and stuff. This was the first lap I had ever gone out on it. To start the lap, I flicked it back in the first chicane. I’m always kind of wary of a qualifier because I never know if I get them hot enough on the first lap. As soon as I flicked it right, the bike chattered just for a second, just like that. Then it was fine and I drove out of the corner. I thought, ‘OK, I just didn’t have it hot enough. Now it should be OK.’ And then you know that chicane where I fell off, there’s that double left then you lean left and right and on the right you’re not really leaned over. You’re just going straight through it. Well, when I went left coming out of the corner, I pointed it right where I wanted to be and I went just a few degrees off straight up and down, and the thing just let go. As soon as it let go, it caught and threw me back off the inside of the bike. Then I think it threw me down and I actually picked the bike back up, is how the video kind of looks to me. Then the thing started cart-wheeling, which it might have hit me and started cart-wheeling or what not. But I think what happened was the thing that just happened was the thing hit my leg and that was about all she wrote.
RW: At what point did they find the really bad stuff?
KR: There was nothing that they found out was bad. Every time you hit your muscle real hard, you get a hematoma. Because the only way your body repairs itself is by sending a whole lot of blood down there. Afterwards, it just kept sending blood in there, sending blood in there. Since it was so damaged, it just kept filling it up and filling it up and it didn’t have anyway to come back out. That’s where all the pain came from and stuff.
My leg was twice the size of my normal leg. Now it’s about one-and-a-half times normal. It was so hard you couldn’t even push it in. It was like pushing on a concrete wall. A week later, I was in my house about 6:00 p.m. Sunday night. I was up in the kitchen on my crutches and I was like, ‘Man, it’s really starting to hurt me. I’ve got to go sit and get my leg elevated.’ It just kept getting worse and worse. I took two of my pain pills and nothing happened. It kept getting worse and I was going, ‘Aw, hell!’
Art Ting said that it might get bad enough that I would have to go in and get a pain shot. I was just going to go up to him and get it handled, but he was gone in LA. But it was like 8:00 p.m., then 9:00 p.m. and I was like, ‘We’ve got to go to the hospital.’ I was in tears from the thing. I just wasn’t going to make it. There’s not enough of anything I could take to get rid of the pain. I had ice on my leg for five hours without ever taking it off, just to try and numb to where it didn’t hurt so bad. I was just in agonizing pain the whole time. It was getting so bad to where I couldn’t breathe.
When they finally took me back into the (examination) room at 3:00 a.m., after being there from 10:00 p.m., the guy told me I need to breathe, I need to relax and stuff. It hurt so bad! I’d rather somebody just come up and knock me out with a shot to the head, just beat the hell out of me, rather than go through it.
Art said that we’re just going to have go in and find out, because it shouldn’t be swelling up this much. So they just went in. (Ting) found what he basically described as 32 ounces of fluid, gelatin-type blood material, in my muscle. He said, you take that and put it in a 32-ounce bottle of water and you just pressurize it and there was that much pressure inside my leg. So they took that out and I’ve been trying to heal ever since.
It’s been pretty brutal. I mean, it’s definitely the first injury I’ve had. It looks like it’s going to get better one day, then the next day it hurts twice as bad as it has in the last week. And it’s been so mental. One day it’s better, the next day it’s hurting. I still haven’t been able to sleep through the night without having to wake up from it. If I need to get up in the night to go to the bathroom, I can’t even walk.
It’s definitely been a bad deal, but it’s starting to make the turn now. Physically, we’ve just got to get my fitness to where it was, a little better than where it was would be nice because I can always be better. Right now the main thing is to get better and heal up.
Of course, Honda has been unbelievably supportive. I can’t thank Ray Blank, Gary Christopher and Chuck Miller and all of my mechanics and everyone that works on the team for Miguel and Nicky enough for just how great they’ve been. They’re always calling and asking and checking on me. They’re just making sure that I heal up right, and they’re not pressuring me to get back on the bike. When you’re getting paid a lot of money from these companies and you’re not really doing what you’re supposed to do…they realize it wasn’t really my fault.
This year just didn’t go how it was supposed to. Daytona going how it was for 18 laps, and the end of that just broke my heart, basically. I didn’t overheat the tire, which everyone’s accused me of doing because of how I normally ride. I actually slowed the race pace down and stuff. I was really looking forward to racing with Nick, because he’s riding harder than anybody right now. I figured through winter testing it was going to be me and him racing with each other and Miguel was going to be right there, too.
RW: When do you think you’ll be back?
KR: Hopefully, Colorado. I’m not for sure, just when the thing’s 100%. Maybe Elkhart, possibly Colorado.
RW: What brought you to Sears Point this weekend?
KR: I came to see everybody. Everybody’s been asking about me, and I’ve been away from it all and have turned my phone off most of the time, people calling all of the time. Show up, show my support for Honda and my teammates. To come here and watch these guys do what they did was kind of neat. I wish I was out there racing with them. I think we could have had an all-Honda podium.
Nicky rode unbelievable all weekend. Nicky’s rode unbelievable all year. Miguel rode just fantastic. A couple of things hesitated him from racing with Nick. I’m looking forward to getting back on the bike because I’ve seen so much improvement the guys have done this year from last year. Last year, I’d go into the race on Sunday afternoon, we’d still be scratching our heads figuring what the hell we’re gonna have on the bike. It doesn’t look like that’s a problem now. I’m really looking forward to getting back out there with the guys and getting a 1-2-3 for Honda.
What’s Up With Kurtis Roberts: An Interview From Sears Point
What’s Up With Kurtis Roberts: An Interview From Sears Point
© 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
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