Page 102 of The Legend
KnoxvilleIA – January 27, 2022
“Afterhours of touch and go, Jimi Riley, the 31 time retired World of Outlawschampion was pronounced dead at 2:21 a.m. at the University of Iowa.” Directorof competition for Knoxville Raceway, Larry Shields, said Thursday morning.“Races for the remainder of the first annual Frost Nationals have beencancelled.”
JimiRiley was pronounced dead just hours after a horrific crash during the FrostNationals at Knoxville Raceway. Riley had retired from the tour last yearhanding over the reins to his grandson, Axel Riley, who was also racing lastnight.
Theinitial crash happened when a left rear tire blew on Jimi’s car as he wasattempting a pass on the outside of turns one and two. When that happened, his cartook a sharp left hand turn coming down on his son, and NASCAR Cup driver,Jameson Riley.
Bothcars made a series of flips, were hit by other cars trying to avoid the wreckand then eventually came to a rest.
Jimi,who suffered a severed spinal cord at the base of his skull and never regainedconsciousness, Jameson, whose injuries are unknown at this time, has beenlisted in critical condition.
Fromtrack officials it’s believed he suffered a head injury but wouldn’t say towhat level.
Iappreciated the fact that doctors and family were not releasing detailssurrounding Jameson’s injuries. We didn’t know the extent right now and didn’twant speculation.
No matterhow many times I read the news reports, or watched ESPN and SPEED, it stillhadn’t sunk in that Jimi was gone. I just kept imaging him sleeping likeJameson was.
NASCAR,and more importantly, its president Patrick, wasn’t pleased that Jameson was ina sprint car again. Jameson brought a lot of money to NASCAR. I knew Patrickcared for Jameson but to me, it was about money for them. Money they werelosing out on.
Simplexunderstood but I knew it wouldn’t be the last we heard about the incident. IfJameson made it, and still raced in the Cup series, I knew they would never lethim race anything other than in the Cup car they sponsored.
ComeSaturday afternoon, I was getting nervous that Jameson hadn’t improved any tobe taken off the anesthesia yet. Dr. Howe assured me there were signs of himbeing able to take him off it soon but not yet.
I had anotherchance to talk to Justin and Axel about the accident. They were both rightbehind them when it happened. The general census among the group that was inKnoxville was that something had broken on Jimi’s car, but the way Jameson’sroll cage didn’t hold up was an concern.
Tommy,Willie, and Axel flew back to Mooresville to take care of business back home. Ihad a feeling they were about to deal with what should have been done monthsago.
For therest of us at the hospital, we waited. Our lives were on hold.
I wouldlove to say that I was helpful to my family around me and supportive of theloss that we had endured but I can’t say that I was. My mind was, and couldonly; concentrate on my husband being supported by machines. The other part thatbothered me was that I wasn’t allowed to see him.
On Mondayafternoon, they decided it was time that they could start to ease him off theanesthesia but it was a slow process. By Tuesday evening, he was finallybreathing on his own but still heavily medicated. I listened to the doctors andnever left his side. Their response was, “We wait. The longer you’re out, thelonger it takes to wake up. Once he does, we wait even longer to see the extentof the damage.”
In themeantime, we had to decide what to do about Jimi and the funeral. His wisheswere to be cremated. After that, we weren’t sure when we would have a funeralas it didn’t feel right with Jameson not knowing. We all agreed to postpone thefuneral until Jameson was well enough to attend.
It’s notunfamiliar to our family but in the blink of an eye, a race that was supposedto be just for fun, turned deadly. In the blink of an eye, you’re staring intodarkness. Could it be that your entire world was shattered in that instant? Itsure felt like it to us.
I kepthoping and praying that I would blink and he would wake up. Or when I wouldreturn in the morning, maybe it would have all been a dream. I thought thatevery time someone left but it never changed. He remained sleeping. Healing Ihoped.
I don’tthink I would ever understand death any more than I understood the addiction Ihad to coffee. All I knew was that I would be here for him in any way I could,waiting.
By Fridayafternoon, over a week of being out of it, they moved Jameson to a room on thethird floor where he could finally have one visitor at a time.
And wewaited.
And wewaited longer.
At somepoint, it felt like we had been living in that hospital for months when we hadonly been there for sixteen days.
OnSaturday, February eleventh, our praying and wishing came true. Jameson showedsigns of improvement.
I was inhis room at the time, staring at him again when I noticed his hand twitchinside of mine. Up until this point, he would twitch every once in a while butnothing would happen. This time, his eye lids fluttered. They didn’t open, butthey fluttered in a sign that my husband was in there somewhere.
What did Ido?
I burstinto tears. Classic emotional Mama Wizard move.
Collected – Jameson
