RuSPORT driver Cristiano da Matta was involved in an incident with a deer today at the Road America circuit, nestled in the countryside near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
Cristiano da Matta. Photo by Kurt Dahlstrom.
The 2002 Champ Car (CART) champion was participating in an Open Test for the series on the 4.048 mile road course when the deer came out onto the racing surface in the third practice session and collided with the right side of the open wheel car before landing near the dingle area.
According to the RuSPORT team release, "Da Matta collided with a deer that wandered onto the track, at approximately 3:08 pm CDT today."
The Brazilian, who had turned the third quickest time prior to the incident, joined the team prior to the Portland International Raceway event in mid-June. Last Sunday, he has his best finish with his new team with a second place finish.
According to early reports, the Champ Car Safety Team placed him on a backboard when they removed the unconscious da Matta from the car. He was immediately airlifted to a nearby hospital and at this time, Da Matta's condition is unknown.
Medical update:
Da Matta underwent immediate surgery at Theda Clark Medical Center.
Statement From Dr. Chris Pinderski, Champ Car Director of Medical Affairs:
"After arriving at Theda Clark Medical Center, a head CT scan showed Cristiano had suffered a subdural hematoma. He was urgently taken to the operating room for surgical removal of the hematoma and is now being observed in the intensive care unit."
Eastern deer are dumbed down to the point they have a very skewed flight reflex....that accounts for the weirdness of our experiences.
I noticed that western deer: mulies and also elk, antelope and moose were a bit more laid back in their 'flight'. They'd mostly turn around and retreat from the roadside. 'Cept the one that raced Mac...another story.
Praire Dogs and Chipmunks out west seemed to rush the road well ahead of the bike.
Never saw any live skunks, racoons, other rodents or armadillos to guage.
Saw two dead beaver and a couple of dead porcupine. Anybody ever hit a porcupine? I wonder what that is like?
DJ - I had cut a link to the same story about the race car driver and was scrolling this thread to post it! You beat me to it!
And speaking of animals getting hit on the road, you only have to see a squirrel react to your vehicle to understand where the expresssion "acting squirrelly" came from! 3 direction changes per second!
'02 in black - the real BMW color! (Now gone to a new home)
Vann - Lifer No. 295
Here in NE Iowa deer are amazingly thick. There is not a night or evening when you don't see at least a few of them. Personally...I can't think of anyone locally that has hit one on a bike, but I can't offhand think of more than one person that has NOT hit one with a car. Pretty wild. You really have to stay alert in Iowa hill country.
Oh, as for small animals...besides farmers dogs, which will scare the crap out of you jumping out of the ditch in a mad dash to bite your tires...the raccoons are also amazingly ( and annoyingly) prevelant around here.
Within the last month or so, i have narrowly avoided one 8-10 point buck, several raccons and cats, and was really REALLY close to running over a skunk.
Hit a youngish Roe deer doe a year or two back on a loaner R1150R. It was dark, coming down a fast, open single carriageway A-road and this deer just suddenly appeared in the headlight coming out of the verge on the other side of the road.
I think I killed it outright by smacking the right cylinder into it's head at 80mph!
After I hit it I thought it was stuck to the bike somehow, there was something flapping at my leg, so I kicked it and kicked it, thinking it'd knock me off, until I slowed down and realised it was the remnants of the fairing flapping at my leg!!
virtually no blood on the corpse at all.
A friend of mine who's a tree-surgeon and woodsman lived near by and he picked it up* and it fed him and his dog for a week or two.
(*in the UK you're not allowed to pick up your own roadkill).
Worst spot I know of is just south of Susanville Ca. on Hwy 395. Area called "Bass Hill." Lots of scrub brush and desert on one side of highway and a farmer's water impoundment on the other side. There is almost always at least one dead deer on one side of the road or the other. I hit two there over the years (in cars thank goodness). I've stopped at night and shined the area seeing around fifty sets of eyeshine. The local coyotes are very well fed.
Second worst spot is on Ca. Highway 36 just east of "South Fork Mountian Road." These are a bit more cagey though, but every time I go through there I see one or two either on the road or next to it.
Add me to the list of riders with a deer encounter of the too-close kind. Except in my case, neither the bike, deer or rider won. Totalled '96 R1100R and broken collarbone plus deer that had to be put down by responding cop. This was (of course) at dusk. Two if them popped out of the woods full speed. First one was far enough away that it cleared me, but the second one ran right into my path and I t-boned it.
In Wayland, Massachusetts two years ago. This was only my third year of riding and I thought about giving it up. But then I figured it's not really indicative of some deficient riding technique on my part - it happened so fast not even most highly skilled riders could have avoided if any. I also concluded the odds of something like this happening again were pretty small. So after my clavicle healed, I went out and bought another (1999) R1100R.
