On the Mend
ON THE MEND
RACE WATCH
Months after his horrendous USGP crash, Bubba Shobert struggles to regain his winning form
BY NOW, BUBBA SHOBERT’S post-race crash on the cool-down lap of the U.S. Grand Prix may seem like distant news. But for 13 hours in mid-April, the entire motorcycle community agonized while Shobert lay near death in the intensive-care unit of the San Jose Medical Center. That accident, which happened when Shobert ran into the back of Australian Kevin Magee, who had stopped on the track and was in the midst of a dragstipstyle burnout, left Shobert crumpled by the side of the track with severe head injuries, a fractured shoulder and a broken thumb. Even when the immediate danger of death had passed, Shobert remained in a coma for several weeks, during which his doctors would give only the mostguarded prognosis for his recovery.
That was the bad news.
Now', just a few' months after his horrific crash, Shobert has returned home with a clean bill of health.
But even though Shobert has been released from his doctors' care, he remains a long way from a complete recovery. For one thing, he has difficulty with his concentration and coordination.
“My right side is as strong as my left, but I have trouble controlling it,” he says. “And when I get tired, I have trouble saying some words. I also lost 16 pounds when I was in the hospital, though Em now up to 130.”
He is able to drive, although he admits it takes more concentration than it did before his accident. He has also just begun riding again, though so far only on dirtbikes. “I rode my CR250 and smoked my dad,” he says.
But Shobert still has some memory problems.
“I don’t remember the crash, or anything of the time I spent in the San Jose hospital,” he says. “The first thing I can recall after the accident is the nurse on the flight back to Texas.” So, Shobert spends much of his conversations filling in the gaps in his memory; he asks a lot of questions about events and things he has done.
“My memory keeps coming back a little at a time. The last test I took in Texas turned out really well. Better than the first one, where they asked me what year it was and I said 1984,” he laughs.
Throughout his rehabilitation, Shobert has maintained an upbeat attitude, and he quickly puts to rest the nagging question of whether or not he wants to race again with an emphatic, “Yes!” But iie also realizes just how serious his injuries were and how much work he has to do to get back into racing shape. Because returning to the track is his main priority right now, he works out every morning on weight machines and spends 20 to 30 minutes on an exercise bicycle. “My contract calls for a few races in Japan after the GP season, and I would like to ride in those. But Pm not going to attempt something I know 1 can't do. I don't want to ride unless I have a chance of winning.”
The thought of not being able to race is something that Shobert is not quite ready to talk about. So it is understandable that when he flew to England in August to watch the Donington GP. he came back a little restless. “It’s no fun watching a race when you should be out there twisting the throttle. You hear all the pit talk, but don’t have anything to do. I felt left out,” Shobert says.
Asked if he harbors any resentment towards Magee, who suffered a badly broken ankle in the USGP crash, but has recovered and is racing again, Shobert says, “No, there’s no angerat all. It was one of those things that happens in racing. My injuries are an expensive price to pay, but I’m lucky that things aren't any worse than they are.”
That forgiving disposition can only speed Shobert’s recovery. Says Kenny Roberts, a close friend of Shobert—and, ironically, Magee’s team manager—who flies in to visit Shobert whenever he can, “Bubba is doing great. I just come over to give him a few golf lessons once in a while.”
But it’s a difficult thing to get your life back together after such a traumatic event. Don Shobert. Bubba’s father, has been at his son’s side since the accident and is thrilled with his progress, but, he says, “Don’t let anybody kid you, this is not like the movies, where all of a sudden you wake up and everything’s okay. It takes a long time for things to come back.”
So for the time being, Shobert is spending his time relaxing, working out and playing a lot of golf. Fortunately, he is in pretty good financial shape, with the Cabin team continuing his salary, and American Honda helping with the hospital expenses. Still, the question of whether Shobert will ever be able to race again is as yet unanswerable, and in many ways a far-less-important matter in the larger perspective of getting on with his life. It's nothing less than remarkable that Shobert has made so much progress so quickly.
And that’s the good news.
—Camron E. Bussard
