The year Boris won

That was 1972 the year Boris won. Sonny had a metal set up to the handlebars to shut off his fuel to the injectors and it broke, he replaced it with a piece of string, on the next run it got burned off, I was at his pit area when he was trying to do something about it so he could run again. The shutoff set right on top of the primary chain cover. He wouldn't listen to me, said it would be alright. Well, he did just what you said, he said he didn't know anything was wrong until he went to hold up the bike with that hand to unfasten his helmet and the bike fell over. The only thing he really had left was his fore finger. My Son Gene rode to the hospital in the ambulance with him. My run was right after the track was ready to go. I show up with both of my bikes, my race bike and my exhibition bike. I qualified my race bike and went to the NHRA Steve Gibbs to get permission to try to qualify my other bike; of course I could only run one. The race bike had a 4 ¾ inch stroke and the exhibition bike was a 5 inch stroke. It had already gone 174 but it was pretty slow due to the fact I had it set up with tall gear for speed. I had set it up for Indy already and got it ready for a run. Coming off the line I was carrying the front wheel and a rear rod broke, locking up the engine and pitched me over the handlebars. I stuck my left hand out to break my fall instead I broke some ribs and punched a lung. Sonny went to one hospital and I went to a different one. Can you imagine, your hand goes between the front engine sprocket and chain?