Mike Lafftery is going for his record-breaking ninth AMA Enduro title this year. Things started out very well for him, a racer better known for getting slower starts in championship points races. But between the third and fourth races this year, while holding the points lead, he crashed and injured his foot, and had to sit out the recent Lone Star Enduro in Texas.
Mike talked to Dirt Rider about the details of his crash and injury, the steps he's taking toward recovery, his plans to return, and how this affects his title hunt.
DR: Can you give us the details about your crash?
ML: We got some stuff that I wanted to test and I just went out by myself to try a couple of things. We'd had a ton of rain here and it was slippery and I got sideways coming around a little bit of mudhole. Just after this mudhole there were two trees, one of the left and then one staggered to the right. I glanced off the one on the left and then it pinballed me into the one on the right. I missed it with my handlebars but I slammed into it with my foot. The impact of the bike smashed the front of my foot in between it and the tree. I knew as soon as it happened that something was broken. Until I got to the hospital I didn't realize how bad it was. I had like ten or eleven breaks.
DR: So you rode yourself bike back to your place?
ML: Yeah, I was probably three or four miles from home. I didn't have my cell phone, I wasn't going to be gone long, I just wanted to try a few things. I've done it a million times where I've had my cell phone, I just didn't even think to take it with me. I knew I wouldn't be but a couple of hours. It was just one of those things. I got myself up, got up to a road and cruised myself back. I was in denial. I was still in shock telling myself, "It's not bad, it's not bad, it's not broken..." Once I tried taking the boot off I realized it was. Then once we got to the hospital the doc said he'd never seen a foot that looked that mangled with that many breaks.
DR: What did it look like?
ML: It took a hard right, buddy! I thought my ankle was dislocated. I was riding down the road, I was holding my knee up against the tank, and I looked down at my foot and the foot was facing off to the right. It wasn't my ankle it was my toes that were making it do that. Everything was broken across the big toe, second, third were all broken and the fourth and fifth ones were dislocated and shoved off to the side. It was pretty mangled and pretty painful. Then once the doc took a bunch of x-rays and checked it all out he said hopefully we can make this happen and it won't be more than one surgery, but he wasn't guaranteeing it. I got out of surgery three hours later, and he came right to me with x-rays from before and after and everything looked good. He said I shouldn't need to have any more surgeries if I keep it immobilized and keep the cast on it for two weeks. Then we'll see how it feels, put an air cast on it from there and start doing some rehab and see where we stand. It's on a day by day basis to see where things are going to head. These first two weeks will be pretty crucial keeping the thing up and letting the pins do their job. Right now I've got pins in three toes from the very top going all the way down, all the way through every joint, from the top of my toe down close to the ankle. The big toe, I broke that in four places, so there's two pins sticking out of that holding that together. These are all external - they're all sticking out of the skin.
DR: What were you testing?
ML: We've been having a little bit of an issue with my brakes heating up. We got some new stuff, a new master cylinder, and I knew I was going to race probably that weekend so I actually took a few brake pads with me that I wanted to break in, 'cause if I just throw them right in without actually scuffing them in they'll actually heat up a bit quicker. So I was just scuffing up a few brake pads and seeing if I could tell a difference performance-wise with the test models.
DR: Did the brake change have anything to do with the crash?
ML: No, I wasn't even up to speed, it was more just the place being really slippery. It had rained the day before and it was a little more slippery than normal. It was a piece of trail that I haven't ridden hardly at all. Probably the second time I've ever been on it. It's one of those things, just a freak deal.