Setting a new screw-blown door car world record was a feather in the cap for White, but putting Youmans’“ Elvira”‘ 69 Camaro in the winner’ s circle was his priority for the weekend.
White woke up in the hospital Friday morning without any knowledge of what had happened or why he had a breathing tube. He was first assured that his son, Micah, who was also in the side-by-side, was OK. Doctors then ran through the lowlights: both lungs collapsed and one was punctured, he broke eight ribs, had an AC separation, and was knocked unconscious in the incident. He had a chest tube for about a week to keep fluid off one of his lungs. After about a week in the hospital, White got to go home to recover and reflect on what happened.
“ We get complacent on safety a lot of times until an accident happens, and then we remember how important it is,” White says.“ It’ s just a reminder to all of us people that like to do fun stuff. If I’ d have had my seatbelt on, I would’ ve never had this conversation, but I did not, and that was pretty negligent of me because I’ m very, very big on safety. I usually am. I just wasn’ t that time.”
Ever the racer, White’ s mind went to getting back to the racetrack. He was scheduled to go racing with Tommy Youmans the weekend after he got home from the hospital. Youmans shut that down.
“ Tommy was not at all interested in racing,” White says.“ He was more worried about me being at home. I was going to try to go racing. He just said‘ no.’”
Throughout the recovery process, White was overwhelmed by the outreach and support he experienced. Barnett sourced get-well-soon decals that he and fellow NHRA Pro Mod drivers ran at the NHRA Southern Nationals the weekend
“ Sitting at home really ain’ t for me. Getting back to the racetrack was what I wanted to do. Number one, it’ s my job, and that’ s just where you get better, when you’ re working, in my opinion.”
of the accident. The NHRA Pro Mod group held a group prayer in the pits at South Georgia Motorsports Park that weekend. Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani, also known simply as“ KH,” called to make sure White and his family had everything they needed. Fellow tuner Mark Savage stepped in to help with the Al-Anabi Racing entry driven by J. R. Gray that White tunes this season. In short, the community rallied around White in his time of need.
“ It was a really crazy, eye-opening experience from my job side of things of how close the racing community really is,” White says.“ It was pretty mind-blowing how many people reached out. I’ d seen the videos of the group prayers at the racetrack and I had a lot of people praying for me and really concerned about me, which was pretty overwhelming. I didn’ t really know that many people liked me, but it was pretty awesome. Even though we’ re in competition all the time, it’ s like a big family.”
After giving himself a few days to heal at home, White got back to work. He drove up to Rockingham Dragway for a test session, and because he wasn’ t cleared to fly yet, he caught a ride with Stan Shelton’ s team up to Joliet, Illinois, for the NHRA Route 66 Nationals. When he was back at the track, White knew he was where he needed to be.
“ Sitting at home really ain’ t for me,” White says.“ Getting back to the racetrack was what I wanted to do. Number one, it’ s my job, and that’ s just where you get better, when you’ re working, in my opinion. Everybody really looked after me and made sure I didn’ t do anything to hurt myself or make sure I had everything I needed.”
White didn’ t slow down. He rolled on to U. S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan, for the Shakedown at M’ Town, a collaborative event featuring the Mid-West Drag Racing Series and the FuelTech Radial Outlaws Racing Series. White’ s roster for the weekend listed seven cars: the screw-blown“ Elvira”’ 69 Camaro Radial vs. the World entry and the centrifugally supercharged“ Salvage Title” Mustang Pro 275 entry driven by Barnett and owned by Youmans; Youmans’ turbocharged, Pontiac-powered’ 70 GTO in Limited Drag Radial; Rob Kohler’ s screwblown RvW Camaro driven by Kyle Dvorak and Kohler’ s screw-blown“ Stick Weld” LDR Camaro
126 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 201