Crashes - The Upside

The downsides of crashing are obvious

The upsides are not so obvious but something definitely changes in drivers.

In the short-term there can be a loss of confidence or some extra anxiety and hesitation, certainly an increase in pre-race nerves.

But that’s not what I’m digging into here. I think something fundamental changes in a driver after the sort of crash that you would call ‘a big one’. In karting that usually means you went in a different direction to your kart and spent some time airborne.

Those crashes, which I think we all have at some point are transformational, I reckon that transformation is positive. (disclaimer - don’t crash!)

The Experience of a Kart Crash is Weird

When I had my first big crash I remember hitting something, then looking down at my feet. I was wondering why are my feet below me?

By then I was completely detached from my kart, flying in an independent direction quite fast. At that point I had the feeling of time slowing down which is that whole peak performance flow state thing, but since I was now airborne I couldn’t convert that super-human state into anything useful at all.

I was just a young lad, flying…. The most prominent thing I noticed was total silence. Not just external silence but internal silence, no thoughts - nothing.

I then heard myself groan when my head hit the road. I tumbled around a bit, and came to rest in a field. I couldn’t see where the kart ended up.

The weirdness is how driving is an activity of total control. You get to control your own limbs AND an extension of your power - a vehicle that goes fast, steers like magic and feels incredible - a control freak’s paradise.

Then in a crash you lose all of that control. Your volition becomes completely irrelevant.

You are nothing, irrelevant, all you can do is wait while forces take over and do what they want with you, maybe kill you, it is nothing to do with you and you know it.

You directly experience being nothing, from being a control freak, you become zero. You may be let off with a few scrapes, you may be crushed like a bug.

But it doesn’t induce a panic, or even feel unpleasant. It’s an out of body experience.

When we lose that control you might expect us to freak out, but instead we surrender entirely to the forces and wait.

After a Crash We Always Go Back For More!

Drivers almost always go back, and get as close to crashing as they can, and try to dance with the limit again.

That's where they are happy, that's where they get to feel control, and be themselves….

Somehow after a big crash it all feels even more right!

And then eventually they crash again, become helpless and useless, nothing, irrelevant.

It’s hard to describe the feeling of being a driver and surrendering to being taken over by the forces that we were once master of. The best way to illustrate it with a video of Colin McRae.