RICK STIVERS: THE UNTOLD STORIES OF HIS CRASH
Rick Stivers believes it’s the injuries you can’t see that can hurt most.
The veteran Pro Modified racer from Lexington, Ky., endured a devastating accident during the NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway International Raceway. He emerged from the crash with no apparent injuries and was moving and speaking coherently as soon as he exited his significantly damaged Dodge Stratus.
Stivers, a racer in the Get Screened America NHRA Pro Modified Challenge, had experienced accidents before – but this one was different. Not only did his car strike the opposite lane retaining wall head on, but it also vaulted into the air and slammed down onto the track.
Stivers will attest that once a car begins a crash, the driver is usually just along for the ride, and that was the case in this accident.
Rick Stivers believes it’s the injuries you can’t see that can hurt most.
Stivers, a racer in the Get Screened America NHRA Pro Modified Challenge, had experienced accidents before – but this one was different. Not only did his car strike the opposite lane retaining wall head on, but it also vaulted into the air and slammed down onto the track.
Stivers will attest that once a car begins a crash, the driver is usually just along for the ride, and that was the case in this accident.
This one was different and his first since fellow Pro Modified racer Steve Engel succumbed to injuries in a similar 2008 crash.
“When that baby hit the wall, I said, 'thank God I am all right” and then it went to somersaulting through the air I was hoping there was a God that heard me because I thought I was a dead man,” said Stivers, who returned to racing at the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. “Then when she came to a stop, I was 'thank you Lord.' I was scared something terrible.”
Stivers was checked out by the NHRA’s medical staff and released. However, there were internal injuries to both his body and mind.
“I had some small hematomas with some internal bleeding for a couple weeks,” Stivers explained.” That was minor compared to the mental state it put me in. I was just real skittish and jumpy. I just wasn't right mentally, not that I am normally, but a little worse than normal.”
Stivers believes that he was suffering from a form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD], even though he wasn’t diagnosed by a doctor.
According to the Mayo Clinic, a medical research and treatment facility, PTSD is a type of anxiety disorder that's triggered by a traumatic event. One can develop post-traumatic stress disorder when experiencing or witnessing an event that causes intense fear, helplessness or horror.
“For a couple of three weeks after the thing, I just started looking at things a lot differently,” Stivers said. “A lot of things just weren't quite as important to me. It affected me.”
Because a driver only needs medical clearance to race after an accident, there were no restrictions on the mental psyche to prevent Stivers from returning to competition.
Stivers’ competitive nature ignored the symptoms and instinctively proceeded forward with plans to return to driving as soon as possible. His son Rick Jr. was already on the phone, locating another car to race for the next event when friend and tuner Brad Anderson intervened.
“We were trying to buy a Corvette out of Alabama so we would not get out of points contention,” Stivers admitted. “Brad (Anderson) told me he would not tune the car. That I was not getting back into the car for at least six to eight weeks because (the crash) hurt me in ways I didn't know and I need to get myself back together.”
Was Anderson’s advice right?
“At that time I didn't think so,” Stivers responded. “He was my tuner and I needed my tuner. The old man was right. I hurt for almost eight weeks, in my chest, where the belts hung me upside down. He told me right.”
Stivers didn’t wait six to eight months, but waited long enough to gain approval from Anderson, a former championship Top Alcohol Funny Car racer. Almost three months after the crash, Stivers, Anderson and the crew decided to test at Gateway International Raceway as a means of reacquainting their driver with a different car and putting the crash behind him.
That first run was not easy. Stivers walked the track before the first run and saw the marks of his May accident still visible on the retaining wall.
That first run back nearly became Stivers’ last. He wondered if it was possible for lightning to strike the same place twice.
“I was thinking 'if this s.o.b stops, I am going to go get into my truck and go to Lexington and to hell with all this,” Stivers confided.
But he didn’t.
“I looked around and it didn't mess the paint job up,” he said. “Everything was kind of okay. It took us a couple hours to get it back to the trailer because of the slicks and the yoke and all that. By the time we got back I was okay. I was still a nervous wreck. The second hit we put on it, it didn't make it a hundred feet and it nearly shakes my teeth out and I was really getting discouraged.”
The inspiration of his tuner and the crew kept him going. Then there was the encouragement from his sponsor Trane, a leading heating and air conditioning company, who inspired him to forge ahead in the face of adversity.
“When you look at those pictures; I had somebody on my side,” Stivers said. “The best part of that whole thing was seeing how fast [son] Rick could run the quarter mile and get there. My son was the first one there behind the emergency responders and he ran the quarter mile. And, he's not built for speed.”
Stivers credited the sturdy construction of the Jerry Hass-built Stratus as another reason he didn’t suffer more physical injuries than he did. The car he presently drives is also built by Haas.
Stivers has been a man on a mission since his return to competition scoring a No. 1 qualifying effort at the NHRA Carolinas Nationals in Concord, NC., and a win at the Virginia NHRA Nationals in Richmond, Va.
Stivers’ sponsor maintains the slogan “You can’t stop a Trane”, he believes that motto applies to him, and despite the psychological injuries from the crash in May, he believes he’s fully healed. The time he took off proved to be a blessing.
“I'm onto the 13th of my nine lives,” Stivers said. “I just have to be thankful.”
Advertisement
