scannon Posted August 20, 2011 Share Posted August 20, 2011 Friday was a lapping day at High Plains Raceway (HPR) an hour East of Denver. I went along with some friends doing some testing of hood configurations for curing the overheating at the track of their turbocharged Miatas. My Caterham is broken and so are both shoulders so I wasn't there to drive. As I parked my truck in the paddock the first thing I noticed was a very nice maroon Caterham SV a few rows over. No one was near the car so I kept an eye on it to see if I could spot the owner. While having lunch in the pavilion I saw someone by the car and then a pickup towing a Super Stalker on a trailer pulled up. I dropped my lunch and headed over and introduced myself. The owner of the Caterham is George Hoge of this forum, you may remember the mention of the car being a father/daughter build. The Super Stalker is owned by Michael Pederson also of this forum who recently flew to Florida, bought the car and used the Super Stalker to tow the trailer back to Colorado. Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera with me so no pictures of the people and their cars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Croc Posted August 21, 2011 Share Posted August 21, 2011 Skip - what were you doing to break both shoulders? Are you ok now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MightyMike Posted August 21, 2011 Share Posted August 21, 2011 Ditto...what happened? I hope you are okay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scannon Posted August 21, 2011 Author Share Posted August 21, 2011 They aren't actually broken, as in broken bones. The left one has a torn rotator cuff and the right one (which had rotator cuff surgery 2 years ago) has either a torn muscle or another tear in the cuff. This happened during the Black Hills tour. One of the Sevens broke down and we all stopped to help out. I had to take a leak and one side of the road was flat with no cover and the other side was steep with trees on a shelf about 50 to 60 feet up the side. I got to within two steps of the shelf when a large rock I stepped on gave way and I fell about 20 feet down the slope. Both shoulders took a hit and my right arm lost a lot of skin. I also had some bruised ribs and small cuts and scratches all over both legs and arms. The arm was bleeding badly so I cleaned the dirt and pine needles off with bottled water, wrapped it in some terry cloth and Tom drove me to Deadwood to the ER where I finally got to relieve myself. The trauma nurse cleaned the arm again with tap water, applied some antiseptic and bandaged it up. The cost for this little service was $365. I have limited range of motion in the left shoulder and pain in the right one. I saw my doc right after I got back home and he referred me to the ortho doc who fixed my shoulder the last time. The problem is there have been so many injuries this summer that the ortho dept. is backed up and I can't see the doc until August 30th. I'm in an HMO so unless I want to pay for it myself I will have to wait it out. I decided to see if I could manage the removal of the turbo and did get it out of the car on Friday. I plan to tackle the manifold today and then get them to a friend who will extract the broken studs and true up the mating surfaces. I have inconel studs to replace the SS ones. They were only $19 each!!! I have a couple of modifications planned to decrease the stress on the exhaust system and hopefully this won't happen again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MightyMike Posted August 21, 2011 Share Posted August 21, 2011 Get well soon Skip! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitcat Posted August 21, 2011 Share Posted August 21, 2011 Skip: Google "ancient moves for orthopedic problems". It should bring up an August 1, 2011 Jane Brody article in the NY Times about how a simple yoga move lasting 30 seconds eliminates the need for shoulder surgery in most patients. Mite be worth a shot? "Dr." Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lancylad Posted August 21, 2011 Share Posted August 21, 2011 All the best with recovery Skip, didn't realize you were still having a bad time with the shoulders. You gave us all quite a scare with your body surfing down that slope!!! Get well soon my friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Croc Posted August 21, 2011 Share Posted August 21, 2011 Sorry to hear about this - sounds like you made a right old mess of yourself. Best wishes for recovery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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