The Indifferent Shittiness of the Universe, Part I

Back in Indianapolis, Bloggerdad and Trailhead Brother are both neck-deep into racing, and it seems that if one of them doesn't know a big racing muckety-muck, the other one does. It was these fortunate connections that allowed us to take Trailhead Kid to his first Champ Car race in Portland back in June of 2005 and meet a whole slew of cool people.

One of the people TK was lucky enough to meet was the incredibly kind Cristiano da Matta. Immediately before the race, he took the time to sign TK's T-shirt and talk to him, then got in his car and won the race. The thing I noticed about da Matta was that he didn't seem like he was on autopilot while he was doing it. Understandably, some of these guys see so many people and faces who want their attention that I think they end up just glazing over. But he seemed genuinely engaged. This was such a great thing for us on a number of levels -- TK thought it was cool, and Trailhead Brother and I were documenting the entire day in order to create a photo collage that now hangs on Bloggerdad's office wall.


That's one of the big reasons we're all dashed to hear the news that da Matta is in intensive care with a brain injury he sustained after hitting a deer at 90 m.p.h. during a test session at Road America. Despite the eight-foot fence surrounding the track, the deer nonetheless wandered onto the track in da Matta's path. We're pulling for him, and Trailhead Brother is e-mailing the latest updates.

Shit, this blows. A freak accident puts a great driver in intensive care, fighting for his life. Bleh.