Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

brain has over th e whole bod y," Shobert said. " It defin itely has to be the wors t inj ury of a ny. If you break your leg, you r leg is the only thing that's broken. Bu t with the brain, it's everyt hing." Remarkably, Shobert has no fears about a return to the race track. Fortunately, he remembers nothing about the Laguna Seca accident, or for that matter the Grand P rix itself. T he Austra lian G P, held the week prior to Laguna, is clear - but from th ere u ntil a week after Mother 's Day in May, the re's nothin g but blanks. " Racing aga in doesn 't worry me becau se wh at h appened doesn 't ordinaril y happen ," h e said. " I didn 't just fall down. It really wasn 't a racing accid ent - th e same thing co uld have happened to me on th e way to th e ra ce track. I don 't look at it as racing being dangerous. It is, but it's no more dangerous than any th ing else." We've all read th e sto ries of those wh o have flirted with death emerg ing from comas wi th wild ta les of 106 and the next day I cou ld shoot 95. At home, I throw a baseball a lot, and one day I can wa ke u p and say, 'Man, I'm go nna throw a lo t better today.' And I will. " Every day, things get a lo t better, and I don't have any bad days. It 's no t like some days I wa ke up and can 't do anything. My right side used to start getti ng worse as the day wore on, and I even used to have to take a nap . But now it stays good all day. It's just like it used to be." . P rior to hi s tri p to Roberts' ranch , we asked Shob ert if he was afra id of failing in hi s attempt to co me back to rac ing. H e answered: "I'm not nervous because I kn ow I can do it. T ryi ng to p rove it to everybody else is th e hard part. It 's like when you first start raci ng and you say, 'I'm go nna be Grand National Ch amp io n,' T hey make you do things for· three or fou r years by yourse lf to show that you ca n be. So for me, it's like start ing over again." The riding at Roberts', however, wo n' t be th e first tim e Sh obert 's "You take a lot of things for granted - it's like you don't even think when yo u tie your shoes, bu t I had to." rendezvous' with Elvis a nd such . Bu t not Shobert : " I think they ma ke them stories up," he says wit h a grin. What abo u t his views on life? H as his o u tloo k cha nge d? . " No, I don' t look at ' th ings any ' different ly now ," he says, honestly. " It 's just th e same 01' crazy Bubba." Wh ile wat ch in g th e video tape of the Laguna incident sends ch ills up th e sp ine o f every Bubba Shobert fan, Bubba himself isn 't bothered by it. " Since I don 't remember it, wh en I thrown a leg over a motorcycle since the acciden t. " I've been riding a street bike down th e coas t," he said. " At first, I wo uld have to tell myself to use my right .side wi th the brake and every thi ng. And i t wasn't rea l smooth. It was either on or off, but the last few times everyt hi ng was automatic again. So it's com ing back," . And then there was the time on mi ni bi kes with Rainey. " I was being rea l cau tious until I fell down , and "I'm not nervous because I know I can do it (return to racing). T rying to prove it to everybody else is the hard part." wat ch it, it's like it's not reall y me. Bu t it doesn 't loo k like I cras hed that hard. Everybod y says it 's scary to wat ch , but to me it doesn 't seem like tha t bad of a cra sh." Sh obert ha s said a ll alo ng that he harbors no ill feelings toward Magee for th e accident, a nd th e months of rehabilitation hav en't changed hi s mind. " I don' t hav e an y hard feelings toward Kevin because I know he didn't do it to hurt somebody," he said. " He learned someth ing from it , and I think everybody learned some thing from it. I paid the price, but it could hav e been a lot wo rse." One of th e things Sh obert learned from the acci den t is th e im portance of a solid ins ura nce policy. H is policy di dn' t cover accide nts tak in g pl ace o n a ra ce track , a nd h e's fort u na te th at H onda step ped in and ca me to the rescu e. " Honda paid all my doctor bills, abo ut $150,000," Sh obert said. " I was on a group policy with my dad. I'd checked int o it and th e premium o n th e racing part of it was real high - so I put it off. But I'll get it next time. I was lu cky because H onda didn 't have 10 help." In addi tio n to th e h el p h e ' s received from Honda , Shobert has been give n an unbelievab le amount of suppo rt from his fam il y and fan s. "A fter you win a bit it seems like everybody starts not liking you," he said. "So it was nice to get th e support from th e fans. When I went to Sp ring field to wat ch th e mile th ey yelled for me wh en I was introduced. Usua lly, at Springfield, th ey booed me. " Aside from the question mark hovering over hi s abi lity to return to raci ng, th e only th ing currently worse for wear is h is go lf ga me. " I was shooting in th e lo w 80s, but now I'm shooting a bo ut l O Ss," he sa id. " But I don 't reall y have to pl ay to get better. One day I could shoot a the n eve ry thi ng st arted working . normal. " Shobert has had o ther offers as far as a retu rn to raci ng but surprisi ngly no ne from Honda - alt hough th ey . have offered him a jo b in the ir public relat ions department if his attem p t at a co mebac k is unsuccessful. The racin g offers, however, have come from elsewhere - but apart from th e Rob erts deal , he'd be mor e or less on his ow n. "I've been th ere befo re, and there's on ly so far back I'll go ," he said. " If I ca n 't ride, I'll quit. You 're not go ing to see Bubba Shobert riding aro und at th e back of th e pa ck." •

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