Recover and Rebuild

Believe it or not, this is the car after most of the repairs
When Craig Stanton made contact with the concrete wall on the front straightaway of Homestead-Miami Speedway as a result of tire failure, the impact and damage appeared to be minimal. When the car returned on the flatbed, it told a different story – that was a Big One.

You wouldn’t have known it by talking to Craig, as he was back to the garage even before the car was. In fact, Craig then drove the duration of the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race before driving in the final two stints of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sportscar Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No.16 race that day.

Upon returning to his home in Long Beach, Calif., a checkup at his doctor showed that the crash had done damage not only to the No.44 Magnus Racing Porsche GT3 Cup, but to Craig. His ribs and the surrounding cartilage were damaged as a result of the angled impact with the wall – which measured 7G’s on the car’s data recorder – and had chipped a bone in his right ankle.

Craig’s dedication to his personal fitness has been documented extensively, and no doubt had a lot to do with his ability to race almost two full race distances on the same day as the crash. An X-ray done after the crash showed how much his ribcage had been compressed.

“That crash felt like it knocked the fitness right out of me,” said Craig. “I felt fine out of the car but I was really noticing some discomfort at the end of my stints in the cars. Even though my ribs were jacked up, I still had to be very snug in the car and after having my ribcage compressed in the crash, having the belts on tight wasn’t very comfortable.
Craig Stanton

Three weeks after the crash, Craig has returned to 100% of his training distance and volume, but only 65% of strength.  Craig’s training includes two or three workouts a day, bike rides of two hours or more, runs of one hour or more, and strength sessions called “Sand and Stairs” (which are more painful than they sound) or rock-climbing on the custom-built rock wall in his backyard.

“Anytime you have damaged or broken ribs, it takes about four to six weeks to fully recover, and I’m at week three,” said Craig. “The first couple of weeks were really tough and I took it very easy, almost to the point of doing nothing, but if I sat still for too long, my ribs and the surrounding muscle and cartilage tightened up and that didn’t feel good either.”

After putting in two days of two-plus hours on the bike, Craig says that although he isn’t quite back to his form before the crash, he is more than ready to jump back into the No.44 Magnus Racing Porsche for next weekend’s Porsche 250 at Barber Motorsports Park. Incidentally, Craig’s crash at Homestead-Miani was severe enough that it ended the life of that Porsche tub, and the car that he will share with co-driver John Potter will be a new No.44 Magnus Racing Porsche.

The newly rebuilt car and driver will be in action beginning next Thursday at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama.



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