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By Dick Mittman
indyracing.com
Tuesday Jan 13, 2004
The ankle of 1998 Indy Racing League®champion Kenny Brack’s throttle leg is still mending, but he hopes to toss aside his crutches soon and return to Indy Racing League® IndyCar® Series competition this season, possibly in time for the 88th Indianapolis 500 on May 30.
“I’m getting better and better by the day,” Brack said Tuesday during the weekly IRL teleconference. It was Brack’s first interview session with the media since he was injured Oct. 12, 2003, in a crash in the season finale at Texas Motor Speedway.
“I think you can see several hundred percent difference in the last month already in my energy level, mobility and everything,” said Brack, who drives for Team Rahal. “So it’s going pretty good actually.”
In the backstretch accident, Brack suffered multiple fractures of his back and legs. He spent several days in a Dallas hospital then was transferred to Indianapolis for several additional surgeries before moving on to a hospital near his home in suburban Columbus, Ohio.
Brack’s latest surgery came on Dec. 31, though it was unrelated to the crash injuries. He had his gall bladder removed. On the same day in the same hospital, his wife Anita gave birth to their first child, a daughter they named Karma.
“Right now, I would say that I’m healed back so I can do normal things, except my right ankle isn’t healed up completely yet,” he said. “We’re waiting for the last X-rays, which will be in a couple of weeks’ time, until the doctors let my weight bear on the right ankle.
“Once I can weight-bear on the right leg, I will be walking like anybody else that has two legs and no injuries. I don’t use any braces anymore for the back or any other part except for the right ankle where I have a little sort of (stabilizer) shoe around just to keep it in a good position since I can’t use the actual foot. That’s where I’m at really right now.”
Brack is not making any predictions about when he will return to his Panoz G Force/Honda/Firestone car for Team Rahal, only that he wants to be 100 percent when he does. That could be by May or it couldn’t.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you one way or another right now. Rehab is going well. Everything is going well. But if that’s a realistic goal or not, it’s very difficult to say.
“If I would have been in this position before, maybe I could give you a hint. But I haven’t. I just let everything heal in the time it needs to have to heal. There’s not really a lot you can do to speed up the healing process, bones and stuff like that.”
Rahal, 1986 Indianapolis 500 champion, has hired driver Buddy Rice to fill in for Brack during his rehabilitation. However, Rahal said a car would be there whenever Brack is ready to go.
“I think both Scott (Roembke, team manager) and I are hopeful that Kenny recovers quickly,” Rahal said. “You know, he had a difficult time there in the beginning, but he seems to be back on track. I know his spirits are good. Of course, having a new baby daughter does wonders.
“I think Kenny will be very involved (with the team in the first three IRL races leading up to the Indianapolis 500) because, obviously, if he does come back he wants to have his finger on the pulse of what’s been happening up to that point. Kenny is the kind of guy that if a doctor tells him it’s four months to heal, he’ll try to do it in three or better.”
Since his recovery has accelerated, Brack said he has had not doubts about returning to the IndyCar® Series.
“I don’t think I have doubts in my mind I can do it again,” he said. “It’s something rather that I’ve always done. I’ve always lived with racing. I love the sport. Yeah, I’ve always known that it has risks and stuff can happen at times. You know, this is what I’ve been doing successfully in the past, and that’s what I want to do successfully for a while longer, really. I still think that I’m very competitive on the track. You know, it’s my life, basically.
“I just want to try to get back into that position.”
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