Bobby Hansen’s 2014 Racing Season Is Over Thanks To A Labor Day Weekend Injury

What a holiday weekend! Mine started off great at the Hawkeye football game on Saturday with a win over UNI. Sunday was nice and warm and a big night of racing for me in Dubuque.

32 tough drivers checked in to qualify for the 24 car field. I drew the outside front row for my 8 car qualifier and only 3 cars would automatically qualify for the feature from this race. I grabbed the lead right away and my car felt pretty good, but on lap 6 it started to take a turn. I was passed for the lead, which I didn't think would be a problem. As we got through turn 1 and 2, an object about the size of a golf ball was picked up by the other driver's tire and thrown into my car -- these cars don't have windshields. The object hit my right hand between the ring and pinkie fingers, right around the knuckle. At first I thought I might just have some bloody knuckles under my gloves. We had just under 4 laps left so I wasn't going to pull off, but on the last lap the pain was starting to become more intense. I hung on so I would get qualified in third place, but I knew something wasn't right. I took off my gloves and saw that my pinkie and ring finger were both not pointing the same direction as they were before the race.

My 20-year streak of not getting hurt racing has come to an end. My night (and season) of racing are over, but I'm happy this is all that happened to me. Needless to say, a trip to the St. Luke's ER on Labor Day Sunday/Monday was not part of my plans. The great staff there took good care of me and let me know that I had two broken fingers and a broken hand. (Special thanks to Dr. Beard and nurses Danielle and Lindsey for making the experience as pain free as possible). I will find out later today if I need to have surgery on my hand.

It's been rough in the Handsen household this summer. First, my wife Katie broke her toe in July (and, by the way, also had Dr. Beard), and now my hand is broken! I hope to see Dr. Beard out at a concert one day, preferably when neither Katie nor I are injured! It was fun talking with the nurses who are both country music and KHAK fans. Thanks again to the staff at St. Luke's!

Click to see the pictures of my injured hand -- Warning: they're not for the faint of heart!