6/29/04

Darrell Russell Remembered

It's hard to wait for the NHRA telecast on final eliminations day. A sneak preview online, though, can satisfy my curiosity. That's how I first found out about Darrell Russell's June 27 accident in the second round of the NHRA Sears Craftsman Nationals at Madison, Ill.

My first thought was that it sounded like the popular Top Fuel driver would be spending a day or two in the hospital. He was going to need toys. "I've got to run to the store and get Darrell some toys," I told myself.

Yes, toys. When I was in the hospital as a second-grader getting my tonsils removed in 1961, that made me feel better. I played with those cheesy plastic hand-held miniature pinball machine-like gizmos -- oh, and those "magic screens" you draw a picture on then lift the page and it disappears so you can let your imagination run wild again. Or that goofy Woolly Willy game. Remember those? Crayons and coloring books were good, too. So were bubbles and Silly Putty and toy cars and -- It was going to be fun putting together a C.A.R.E. package for Darrell. He'd get a kick out of it. And it would be something different -- most everybody else probably would send him cards or flowers or chocolates.

Tony Schumacher, a kid at heart, seemed to have liked his box of goodies in 2000, after he flew over a concrete wall at 300 miles an hour at Memphis in his U.S. Army Dragster. He suffered a left leg shattered in six places, three dislocated fingers on his right hand, a chip in his right ankle, four cracked teeth, one bruised and swollen eye, and banged-up ribs.

Brandon Bernstein received a similar package of silly stuff that was a we-all-care-about-you gesture last year while he recovered from a broken back from his crash at Englishtown, N.J. He had to wear a clamshell-like brace 24 hours a day for several months while recovering from his season-ending, over-the-wall accident. Still, he rebounded. Healthy and eager to drive the Budweiser/Lucas Oil Dragster again, Bernstein claimed three early victories this season.

Those two drivers recovered nicely. So did Larry Dixon, who also had an ugly accident at the same race in Memphis that prevented Schumacher from continuing defense of his championship . Dixon's Miller Lite Dragster became airborne and snapped in two around half-track in the final round. He was more upset about forfeiting the victory. He dismissed his broken ankle as a "piddly" problem, compared to what the Dr. Terry Trammells are delivered from race tracks.

Schumacher took another wild ride at Memphis in September 2003, in a Friday night qualifying crash made more horrifying because of its sense of deja-vu. Dixon, too, had another scare there alongside him. Both regrouped, and Schumacher beat Dixon in that final. So Russell's Top Fuel competition, at least for nearly a decade, seemed to cheat catastrophe on a regular basis. Like some cartoon character run over by a truck or forced over a cliff, they always made miraculous comebacks.

Schumacher explained his passion, saying it's "what makes you wake up and want to get in a car that has the potential to kill you each and every time."

We figure they always will walk away. If they're hurt, the injuries won't be too severe. They'll be back to race again. They always do.

The heartbreaking truth is they don't.

A friend who was at the race track in Madison phoned to tell of Russell's crash in the Joe Amato Racing Dragster and pass along word that he had died.

"There are a lot of sad people here," he said, and it was clear he was one of them.

But it just didn't sound right. Somebody must've misspoken and given him incorrect information. This is Darrell Russell, the clean-cut, always-smiling, always-gracious guy who looked far younger than his 35 years. This was the fellow who always had time to talk to you, the one who wandered into the press room routinely, often just to stand and watch what was happening on-track. He hardly made a peep while he was in there; he never made a grand entrance. You'd just look up or turn around, and there he'd be, smiling and saying hello. It couldn't happen to him. Not to Darrell Russell.