I’m still reeling from the events of this past weekend. So much happened in such rapid fire that I can truly say this is one of the most eventful, emotional and exhausting weekends I’ve experienced in motorcycle racing.

The range of emotions I experienced this weekend were quiet amazing and somewhat unexpected. I love motorcycle racing, it’s my passion and profession, but I normally can view events with a degree of detachment. For whatever reason I could not separate myself from the gut wrenching events of Indianapolis.

The Transience of Life
Photographer Andrea Wilson and I hammered east across 38th Street from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to the Indiana State Fairgrounds, coming off a high of Ben Spies winning his first MotoGP pole. A quick drive-through bite at Mickey D’s and we’d just gotten settled in for a great evening of racing when the pre-race prayer included an appeal for Randy Texter. I knew Randy was in bad health, but wasn’t aware he was near death. His heart had stopped, he was on life support and it wasn’t looking good. When I found out it hit me hard. I’d known Randy since his days of road racing Harley 883s and had only recently gotten know his kids Cory and Shayna, both excellent racers.

Then Sunday afternoon I was downloading photos to my computer in the IMS media center when Henny Ray Abrams asked me if I’d heard about Peter Lenz. I hadn’t. A piece of paper was put on my desk space confirming the 13-year-old’s death. I didn’t know Peter at all and initially I felt sad, but not knowing him or his family, or never even having watched him race I couldn’t seem to connect to what had happened.

That night when I got home I went online to the Indianapolis Star and saw the picture of the baby-faced Lenz I gasped and then cried for the second time in as many nights. Randy’s grave condition and Peter’s death came down on me like a lead weight. I could hardly muster the strength to look through the day’s photos.

The Workhorse
Photographer Brian J. Nelson has been a good friend for many years. I already knew how talented of a photographer he was and how hard he worked, but in Indianapolis he continued to amaze. Brian J stayed with us over the weekend and he was up late every night processing images and out of the house at the crack of dawn everyday to begin his work.

How Brian has the stamina to do what he does week after week almost defies logic. Then on Sunday night he showed me one of the most amazing crash sequences I’ve seen. It was the Moto2 crash that involved about a half-dozen riders. Brian captured it perfectly and several of the frames are simply stunning.

When and if you see them you’ll be amazed that Roger Lee Hayden made the restart of the Moto2 race. He got slammed so hard by his motorcycle and his neck was twisted in such a contorted manner it’s amazing he even walked away from the crash.

I was so impressed by Brian’s photos I immediately started shooting off emails to contacts I had at Sports Illustrated to tell them they needed to see these shots. I don’t think we made it in SI, but somewhere the photos will come out and you’re going to be amazed by the image. To me there’s nothing more impactful than a perfectly captured photograph to show the beauty, power and yes, sometimes the brutality of motorcycle road racing.

More Dire News
On Monday I crashed – totally drained and unable to even think about writing.

On Tuesday I woke with a little more energy, but unfortunately the bad news just kept coming.

Curt Cavin from the Indianapolis Star called and asked me what I knew about the bad crash at the Indy Mile. It happened in the first heat race of the evening program in the Pro Singles class several riders appently went down including young Canadian Jesse Phibbs. I hadn’t seen it and wasn’t aware of the seriousness of Phibbs’ injuries. He’d suffered a severe head injury and wasn’t in good shape.

Then the news that Randy Texter had passed away on Monday. Then rumors were confirmed late in the day that Cycle News was ceasing publication. Man, could things get any worse?

I wanted to draw the shades and crawl back into bed.

Instead I went to work looking up info on Randy and trying to find photos of him. I talked to Chris Carr about Randy and had an email returned from Cory Texter, Randy’s son. As strange as it sounds, compiling Randy’s history and finding photos made me feel a little better. I saw in the photos how healthy and strong Randy looked during his racing days and knew the suffering he’d been going through in the last few years. He was now free from pain at least. He left some great children and a host of racers who he helped along the way. The remembrances of Randy poured in on racing community boards. He left a lasting legacy, people will remember him fondly. That was comforting.

Then I read where Jesse Phibbs had responded for the first time in an Indianapolis hospital. He wasn’t out of the woods, far from it, but at least there was some good news about his condition. And with that the day ended and I wrote this piece in hopes for a better tomorrow.