TJ Pruitt
Photos by Dale Burkhart Photography and Braxton Hopkins, Video by Charity Hopkins
Braxton Hopkins was involved in a serious crash at Brainerd Optimist Dragway today. He was rushed immediately to the hospital but was awake and alert. According to sources, he is lucky to be alive. Fortunate, Braxton is recovering. DragCoverage.com will keep you updated with his progress as he makes a strive to return to the dragstrip.
Below is Braxton’s explanation after the crash:
Braxton – “This is what it looks like when you hit a guard rail head on at over 140 mph. I was going down the track and it started pushing towards the center line but I held in the throttle anyway trying to get back in the groove to hopefully be #1 qualifier, it was a stupid move on my part but I’ve drove out of stuff like this hundreds of times. Once I reached the finish line I hit the parachutes and the car started hopping around, as it most of the time does.”
“The car started drifting around and I knew there wasn’t much I could do except try to straiten it out so I cut the wheel all the way right and it started straitening out but as you can tell it was too late I hit the guard rail head on. Dad said it pushed the firewall up into my legs, I broke the steering wheel gripping it so tightly and gashed my right knee once I hit on the steering column. It ripped the passenger seat out of the floor board and broke the nitrous bottle which hit me in the face when I hit.”
“I don’t know what all hit my chest and face but with nitrous spraying in my face and smoke and dust from the impact I unbuckled and jumped out I made it 4 steps feeling like I broke both legs, my back and neck. I fell face first on the concrete, the most scared in my life because everyone was close but couldn’t get to me fast enough. I couldn’t move any muscle in my body until I got in the ambulance and calmed down and started moving my arms.”
“I got rolled into the hospital on a stretcher strapped down so I couldn’t move but 6 hours later a few ct scans and x rays they spent hours looking at my information and I walked out of the hospital with a fractured ankle and a cut on my right knee that they stitched up. I hope no one ever has to go through what I had today. And thank you everyone that came to help me at the track and the hospital and kept following up with us on Facebook.”
Photos by Dale Burkhart Photography and Braxton Hopkins, Video by Charity Hopkins
