Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Chris Bostick’s first-round NHRA Northwest Nationals upset of No. 1 qualifier John Hall was genuinely upsetting on a whole different level.
Hall red-lit, but Bostick had his own troubles. Barely past the finish line, which he crossed at 145.66 mph, Bostick was drifting across the track as he simultaneously tried to balance himself on the bike and adjust his helmet and visor. He took a jarring hit to the opposite-lane wall, but miraculously managed to stay in the seat, albeit a bit wobbly. He got the motorcycle stopped and hopped off, watched the video replay of his wild ride on a top-end monitor, then gave the “OK” sign to TV cameras.
It turned out Bostick hadn’t tightened his helmet strap completely, and wind got up under it and, by his description, “blew the helmet up where I was looking at the chin part of the helmet. [It was] now right across my eyes. I can’t see anything at all. I’m shutting the bike off. Trying to pull my helmet down before I make impact with the wall. But I just wanted to say to everybody at home that I’m fine. Everything’s good.”
He hadn’t realized he won the match, but didn’t hesitate to say he would go get ready for Round 2. “We’re going to go back and either get the other bike out of the trailer or I’m going to get this one back together and we’re going to make another run at it,” Bostick said. “Thank you, Jesus, for keeping us safe. Thank you, fans, for being here. Thank you, everybody. We want to send our prayers and thoughts out to my friend Shawn [Reed] that impacted that same wall yesterday. So God bless him and his family. So, anyway, thank you. Thank you everybody.”
Bostick returned to the starting line for the semi-finals with his back-up bike, but lost to eventual runner-up Richard Gadson.
Event winner Gaige Herrera said after the race, “It’s awesome he got on the other bike. My hat’s off to him. It takes a lot of courage to bounce off the wall, then to swing your leg over another bike you’ve never ridden.” He said he’s glad Bostick is relatively unscathed but said, “He said he was a little beat up.”
