Along with the cold temperatures and rain, racers and race officials at the Summit Motorsports Park were forced to battle some particularly high winds at last weekend’s annual Shakedown at the Summit, and while such a scenario can be quite interesting for any competitor, regardless of the vehicle, it can get downright dangerous for those on two wheels, as Nitro Harley jockey Jason Pridemore proved in a terrifying way.
Pridemore, on hand as one of the combatants in the nitro-fueled motorcycle class in its inaugural inclusion in the famous Shakedown event, was making a hit in the right lane at the Norwalk, Ohio facility when, at or just beyond the eighth-mile mark, he begins to drift to the right and loses control of the bike. This is roughly the point at which the grandstands end, and as you can clearly see off in the distance, the flags are standing virtually straight out in the gail force winds blowing from left to right across the race track, creating a hairy situation for anyone on a motorcycle.
With nothing to block the wind, the bike quickly gets away from Pridemore, laying over to the right, eventually taking the rider with it as it slams nose first into the wall. From the vantage point of cameraman Hans Pierre Jr. of Free Life Films, it’s difficult to tell where Pridemore is at initially in the melee with the concrete guardrail, but as the dust clears he can be seen sliding to a stop in the shutdown area. Thankfully, within seconds, he can be seen standing up under his own power and walking over the guardrail, visibly shaken by what just occurred but not seriously injured.
Video by Michael Clanton
Pridemore’s motorcycle reportedly came to a stop several hundred feet further into the shutdown area with considerable damage, but he’s said to already be assessing the situation to get back on track next season. Citing the strong winds, Summit Motorsports Park officials had already made the very wise call to shorten all racing categories to eighth-mile due to the excessive cross winds on the opening day of the event, prior to Pridemore’s ill-fated pass.