In the world of heads-up drag, everyone is pushing the limits of their machines on each and every pass down the track. During the NHRA’s U.S. Nationals this past weekend at the Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle jockey Joe DeSantis went for the ride of his life as his Team Joey D Suzuki started walking out of the groove around the 1,000 foot mark. DeSantis tried to lean into the bike, pulling it back into the groove to hopefully achieve a full pull in the first round of qualifying to put himself in the tough 16-bike field. As the bike comes off the racing surface and into the shutdown area, the Suzuki finally got away from DeSantis and immediately turned to the left, taking a hard shot into the concrete retaining wall.

Upon impact, the 73-year old DeSantis then came off the bike, his body flipping and tumbling violently after traveling at over 150 miles per hour when he crossed the quarter-mile clocks of Lucas Oil Raceway. DeSantis jumped right up immediately after sliding to a stop, the visor broken off his helmet and the NHRA Safety Safari was right on top of him as quickly as possible to check on his condition.

The following day, DeSantis was interviewed by ESPN and mentioned how he was trying to get an accurate air/fuel reading and was wanting to run it as far as he could down track. He also suffered an arm injury in the melee. DeSantis and team will be back, better than ever and hoping to once again shake things up in the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle world as the season comes to a close.