Tom Kendall Sports Car Racing


INSIGHT: Tom Kendall's GTP crash, 25 years on

Saturday, 02 July 2016


Marshall Pruett (words & images) We celebrate birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and a few other personal milestones that rank as cultural norms but, as Tommy Kendall can attest, something just doesn't seem right about commemorating the event that changed the direction of his life and career 25 years ago in Watkins Glen.

A broken rear suspension component on an impossibly fast Chevy Intrepid GTP car sent the lanky Californian into the Turn 5 wall at unabated speed on June 30, 1991, and with the giant impact, a budding sportscar superstar became a medical project.
Smashed feet and lower extremities sidelined Kendall as multiple surgeries and exhaustive rehab were required. His return in February the following year – in a new Intrepid chassis – was only possible through supreme effort and determination, and with the quarter-century mark adding significance to this weekend's WeatherTech Championship race at Watkins Glen, the IMSA and Trans-Am champion reflected on the life-altering event.
"We do recognize it in the Kendall household, and it's strange in a way; my overall life philosophy is things happen for a reason and serve your evolution, so it would be hard not to give a lot of credit to one of the most impactful things you've ever been through," Kendall told RACER.
"It tests your belief in a philosophy like that, and if you don't apply it to everything that happens to you, it's not a serious philosophy. If you can't be OK with hopping in that car 25 years ago, you haven't properly dealt with it, and I can say now that I have, and would climb in. It's a painful memory from that period, but I wouldn't change it. I like where I am."
Kendall would continue with the Intrepid GTP program through its conclusion at the end of 1992 before moving to the SCCA Trans-Am series, where he would go on to earn multiple titles and set the record for consecutive wins. Life after the Watkins Glen crash was by no means a disappointment for TK, and even with the rerouting of his career path in his mid-20s,

"When I gave my Hall of Fame speech last year, I went down a whole list of all the unlikely things that had to happen to get me there, and that crash was one of them," the 49-year-old said. "It certainly changed where I was headed, but who knows where my career would have taken me without the crash. I did a post on my Facebook page that said,, 'Don't run from your fate, whistle for it to join you,' so it was a tough one, but that's how I look at it."
Living with the effects of the Watkins Glen crash has been an unwavering component of Kendall's daily routine. A significant limp, thanks to the damage and bone loss from the impact, has led to other forms of discomfort and pain that plague Kendall today.
"I know the back problems I'm having today are an outgrowth of having one leg shorter than the other for 25 years, but who knows how badly I would have beaten myself up with all the other stuff I could have gotten into," he said. "I don't have any regrets. Over time, I've stumbled onto beliefs like that. I used to accept things because I couldn't change them. That's what I did after my accident. I didn't spend one minute thinking about it; it was, 'What's next and where are we going?'"
Moving from that goal-oriented approach to a one that dealt with healing the emotional trauma left behind after Watkins Glen has been Kendall's key to letting go of the accident. It makes this weekend's 25-year anniversary more of a historical footnote than a mental trigger for sorrow and loss.
"That 'what's next' outlook doesn't necessarily help your emotional growth, so it took me a while to check it off the list," he said. "The more I was able to accept everything that happened to me, whether I could control it or not, the more the future opened up for me and the happier I became. For me, now, it's part of why I enjoy my life so much."