Capital Driving Club Discussion Forum

At the last Test & Tune, I caught my thumb on the steering wheel spokes/supports while wildly turning the wheel to avoid a spin-out.

For several weeks it was painful doing almost everything including turning a key or doorknob, holding a bottle, or putting on socks/pants. For the first 3 weeks I wore a brace to protect it.

Now after 9 weeks, it is probably 80% better and there is only occasional / slight discomfort while performing daily activities like putting on socks, though it is still "not right" and I still have to be careful with it. Heavy pressure on it (like curling a dumbbell over 30 lbs) is still quite painful.

Before this happened I had no idea such an injury was even possible, so this is a heads up to be aware of it and be careful where you put your thumbs when driving.

you should always keep all your digits on the outside of the wheel in a street car for just that reason, guys in race cars grip the wheel fully 'cause they don't have as many degrees of motion, often they don't even go a full 360 degrees. that's a hard lesson learned, but at least you'll have a good story when you are elderly as to why your thumb still hurts 60 years running, you'll have 6 decades to embellish the tale until it gets to the point where you lost it under braking in the Nouvelle Chicane while battling for the lead in the rain. It'll be your most glorious racing moment

You forgot the zombies...

One of the most debilitating injuries I've ever had was from hitting golf balls at a driving range. The club caught a rip in the mat and I felt something tear on the back of my hand. It's fine now, but took months to fully recover strength in that hand. I try to avoid problems when autocrossing by using a lighter grip on the outside of the wheel, but stuff happens.

One of my silliest was when I was driving a 305 G-body at Gingerman in the rain. It was a shared car with a fixed seat and myself being the shortest driver could just about reach the controls (post this event we realized that was a bad situation). In rain it was sliding all over the place under power, so I was doing lots of steering correction and I think because my arms were practically straight to reach the wheel, during one of the more violent cases of oversteer I dislocated my arm while correcting for it. I have no idea how but I managed to save it and drive into the pits one handed. My teammates ran over and said “dude you aren’t due in for another 40 mins” and I said “my arm is not in its socket”. Luckily when they were pulling me out of the car it popped back in which was handy. Slightly less embarrassing then the first time I dislocated my arm (in a three leg race at a fun event for work…. that was especially awkward because of all the forms it generated…)