Favorite night of the year - cut short

[steelerdirtfreak]

This past Saturday was a night I look forward to each year at Mercer Raceway Park - it's the night they take the wings off the sprints (this year they actually did a couple of times) but it's also the night the Vintage Racers come in for their exhibition race.

Unfortunately my night was cut short. I started feeling the heat getting to me and I just tried to ignore it, drank an extra Gatorade and thought I'd be alright. Then my chest started hurting a bit and I started getting dizzy and I knew I had a problem. Long story short, my wife and a couple of track officials called the paramedic crew over and apparently my blood pressure was sky high - 193/134. The next thing I knew I was inside the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Turns out I was suffering heat exhaustion which in turn played havoc with my blood pressure. I'm feeling better now, but the blood pressure is still doing funny things.

Bottom line, if you're out shooting and the temp is the 90's, drink plenty of GOOD fluids, and have a couple of cold, wet rags to wipe off your face every so often. The heat will sneak up and lay the smack down on ya.

I did get up thru the heat races in; here are a few of the wingless sprints, I'll post a few of the vintage racers as soon as I get that folder finished.

[JSPhoto]

been there done that, Sat at KY was hot but fortunately it cooled a bit as the night went on. Twice I had to go after water though in the first half of the race, after that it was fine.
Hope you feel better.....although you should do pretty well with that IV....

JS

[steelerdirtfreak]

Tried to talk the nurses into adding something to the iv so at least I could be happy about being at the hospital instead of the track...

they didn't go for that idea

[JETA]

That's so darn scary.

Despite it all you got some nice shots.

[JSPhoto]

Tried to talk the nurses into adding something to the iv so at least I could be happy about being at the hospital instead of the track...

they didn't go for that idea

You'd think that they would give you some "Happy Juice" in your IV that would last until after your bill is paid so you don't freak out when you get and pay the bill

I saw a neighbors bill for one of their kids $60 per stitch and $22 for a BAND AID! $202 plus $300 for the doc to put 3 stitches in and I don't remember exactly but they charged something like $60 for the "local" and I think $300 for the "ER Bed". Talk about a scam!

V

[Hoffy]

I hope you are OK....thats definately not good

BTW, love the images. I could imagine that sprints without wings would be scarey enough to watch, let alone being in the infield trying to take snaps