O'Brien Award winning driver Mark MacDonald hasn't said much publicly about the chilling, late-May accident he was involved in at Mohawk Racetrack. The winner of almost 5,000 races has recently broken his silence
during Old Home Week at Red Shores' Charlottetown Driving Park.
Bearing down on driver Jody Jamieson and his fallen mount that fateful evening at Mohawk, MacDonald was forced to make a split-second decision: either drive right into Jamieson or take the brunt of the accident on the chin, literally.
Within seconds, MacDonald, who is no stranger to the uppercut of a serious racing wreck, was ejected from his racebike and instantly catapulted into the air. A date with the unforgiving, crushed-limestone Mohawk course was next on the menu for the unfortunate pilot. Much to the shock of all that witnessed the accident, MacDonald hit the ground with brutal force.
“I’m lucky to be alive, I really am," MacDonald was quoted as saying by Nick Oakes in The Guardian. "They x-rayed my neck and they thought I could’ve broke my neck. It ended up it wasn’t, luckily, but I broke my jaw in five places and I broke my nose in three places. I have skeletal and nerve damage in my hip and separated my right shoulder and tore ligaments in my left forearm. It was about as bad as it gets.”
MacDonald goes into a little more detail regarding the accident and comments on the Gold Cup and Saucer in The Guardian report.
(With files from The Guardian)
Whether you like him as a
Whether you like him as a driver or not it's very difficult not to respect Mark's perseverance. I am happy for him that the accident was not much worse and that he has made a significant if not complete recovery. I wish him safe trips (as I do for all drivers/jockeys) from here on in.