INTERVIEW I MO T OCROSSER-TURNED-ENDURO RA CER BROC HEPLER
P102
After a solid season
with Makita Suzuki in
2006, Hepler signed
with Yamaha to race
Supercross and
motocross in 2007. He
had just come off three-
straight wins and was
a rising star on the motocross
circuit. All of that came crashing
down when a January crash while
prepping for the upcoming SX
season derailed everything.
Hepler was training at the
Yamaha test track when he washed
the front end and was thrown to
the ground, suffering blunt force
trauma to the brain, an injury that
would have a major effect on the
trajectory of the rest of his life.
"I was out about seven minutes
or something," says Hepler. "They
transported me to the hospital. I
know I was there three days, and
I don't remember the hospital at
all. There was actually bleeding on
the brain, so that's when
they have to keep you over
to make sure once the
bleeding stops. Then you
have to stay there a day or
so and make sure you're
good to go. I don't recall
any of the hospital there."
Hepler sat out the rest of the
season until outdoors that year,
missing all of the 2007 Supercross
season and into the outdoors,
racing the final seven rounds but
with little success.
"You never want to quit for good,
but I think even all those years it
was never quite as good as the
days on my Suzuki, because my
brain just wasn't quite as good as it
used to be, I guess."
Hepler suffered several
other injuries, as well, which he
now attributes to effects of the
concussion.
"My brain just couldn't keep up
with some of the pressure," says
Hepler never quit
riding motorcycles.
He has since turned
his attention to
off-road riding and
enduros, a sport he
feels is safe enough
to compete again.
THEY
TRANSPORTED
ME TO THE
HOSPITAL.
I KNOW I
WAS THERE
THREE DAYS,
AND I DON'T
REMEMBER
THE HOSPITAL
AT ALL."
