DSR Drivers Make Joint Pledge To Future Concussion Research

Concussion prevention and treatment has been a hot-button topic around the sports and auto racing worlds in recent years, as considerable research been carried out to address what has become a more prevalent — or perhaps better understood and increasingly concerning— issue. In response to this and in an effort to aid future research as it relates to auto racing drivers, Don Schumacher Racing’s stable of nitro pilots, in a historic and joint announcement, revealed that they had collectively — along with team owner Don Schumacher — pledged to donate their brains to the Concussion Legacy Foundation (CLF).

In a press announcement at the Bandimere Speedway in Denver, Colorado, DSR’s eve stablemates — Tony Schumacher, Antron Brown, Leah Pritchett, Ron Capps, Matt Hagan, Tommy Johnson, Jr., and Jack Beckman — signed paperwork making their commitment official. in doing so, they joined 3,500 other current and former athletes of varying disciplines who have pledged their brains to concussion research since 2008. The public declaration, however, is the first time an entire team has made such a commitment.

Noted the team in an official press release: Schumacher and his cadre of drivers, who experience intense vibrations, extreme g-forces and high-speed explosions behind the wheel of their 330-mile-per-hour, 11,000-horsepower nitromethane-burning race cars, will immediately begin a comprehensive brain monitoring process to ensure an in-depth brain profile upon donation.

The signing event was part of Project Enlist, a joint program between CLF and DSR partner Infinite Hero Foundation, intended to aid research of traumatic brain injury, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in military veterans.

“Donating my brain for research to help other individuals in this world is something that I’m more than willing to do. It surprised my wife, Sarah, but she also agreed to me doing this based on its potential to help drivers, soldiers, business people and the population of the world,” said Don Schumacher. “I support this foundation 100-percent and was thrilled that my seven drivers agreed to donate their brains to the Concussion Legacy Foundation,” added Schumacher.

“My wife didn’t take the news that I was pledging my brain quite the way I thought. Apparently, she wants to have me stuffed and put in the corner of our living room (jokes), but I’ve been an organ donor since I was 16. My thought is, if it can help somebody else, that’s fantastic,” said Jack Beckman. “When you see these veterans coming back with traumatic brain injuries and PTS, and there’s no one cure for this, it makes you realize how much more we still need to learn about the human brain to have effective treatments for the majority of the injured vets. To be a part of that in some small way; well, I can’t take my brain with me, haven’t used it since I started driving a Funny Car (laughs), so someone else might as well take advantage.”

Matt Hagan highlighted the example that the brain of a Funny Car pilot can provide to future research, adding, “driving a nitro Funny Car is not something just anybody gets to do. There are only maybe 50 people in the world that really, truly experience the g-forces we do on a regular basis. These cars are extreme, we put on a show, and we put our bodies through elements that most people will never even understand. If we can help with the research of concussions and saving lives, that’s a great thing, and I’m all about it.”

Leah Pritchett says she had no hesitancy in her decision to join her stablemates, commenting, “When I was first asked if I would be open to donating my brain for future research, there wasn’t even a question in my mind at all. All of us are safer in our passenger cars and safer in our race cars because of what we’ve been able to learn from the past. We get to do what we do and are safe because of technology and science. If I have a legacy to leave behind, and it can benefit anybody in any way, from the sports community to the military to a child that wants to play football, whatever it may be, once I’m gone, I won’t need my brain so I’m proud to know that it will benefit others.”