It was during the last 200 Miles of Daytona thatan accident took place whose young pilot Jody Barry (18 years old) managed to extract Dustin Apgar (whose hand can be seen on the left of the photo) from the flames while he was trapped under his motorcycle and injured.
Shortly after his rescue, Dustin Apgar, a 37-year-old father (with a 7-year-old son) declared: “ Jody is a hero. I don't know many people who would have dove into the flames like he did to save someone he didn't know. ". Roadracing World and the American Sportbike Racing Association (ASRA) presented this Thursday at the Circuit of the Americas on the occasion of the Grand Prix to Jody Barry a new trophy called the “Hero of Roadracing Award”.
Dustin Apgar did a big high side on his Yamaha YZF-R6: “ I was thrown into the air, then fell with the motorcycle in the middle of a shower of sparks. My foot caught by the chain blocked the rear wheel. It suddenly hurt a lot, and the bike caught fire. When the bike stopped sliding, I was stuck underneath because of my foot in the chain and I couldn't do anything.
“Jody came up waving his arms at me and telling me to get out from under the bike. I pointed at my stuck foot. He then dove into the flames – the fire was quite intense at the time – to unpin my leg. I also had blood literally gushing out of a gash in my thigh. So I was trying to compress the artery in my thigh while he worked on extracting my foot. He succeeded and pulled me by both arms to get me out of the blaze.” Dustin Apgar was taken to the hospital where he had two lacerated toes amputated. The perforation of the left thigh ended better, with the footrest narrowly missing the femoral artery.
Jody Barry returned to his stand shortly after with his damaged motorcycle, recounting what had happened: “ A guy slid from behind in front of me, got sideways, and instead of falling outwards like I expected, suddenly regained traction and found himself perpendicular in front of me. I couldn't do anything to avoid it and hit it. We fell, and he was dragged under his bike, his foot trapped between the chain and the sprocket. When I got up, I saw his motorcycle catching fire while he was still underneath. I freed his leg from the chain to save him from being burned. »
During the presentation of the “Racing Hero Award” at the meeting of MotoAmerica riders who will race this weekend at the same time as the Grand Prix, all the riders, team members and officials stood up to applaud Jody Barry, giving him what we call a standing ovation.
Jody Barry (center) surrounded by John Ulrich (Roadracing World), Kevin Elliott (ASRA), Ken Sailant (AMA) and driver Dustin Apgar (far right). Photo by Brian J. Nelson.
