25 Racers Who Overcame Gnarly Injuries

Image via Complex Original

You know that old cliche about how winners never quit and quitters never win? These hardcore racers will have you believing it's not a cliche. Even though they race in different series, they all have one thing in common: they had the personal strength to get back up and keep fighting. We catalogue the injuries they suffered, and how they fought through them to compete.

25. Guy Martin

Injury Sustained: Fractured spine, bruised lungs, twisted ankles
Raced In: British Superbike Championship
Complex Says: Make no mistake--the Isle of Man TT is a serious motorcycle event. In 2010, a major crash involving Guy Martin during the Senior TT resulted in the very first red flag in the race's history. The bike burst into a fireball, the size and intensity of which some Hollywood effects guys should study. Luckily, it looked much worse than it was--Martin was conscious when the medical team arrived. What did he do after he got out of the hospital? Back to the garage, of course. He had another TT to prepare for.

24. Ben Spies

Injury Sustained: Pinched nerve
Raced In: MotoGP
Complex Says: Like other motorcycle racers, Ben Spies has had his share of injuries. From broken ankles to severely bruised ribs, there's no denying that while he's great, he's not above occasional injury. The thing about the pinched nerve is its severity. Right before the 2011 Czech Grand Prix, Spies wasn't sure if he'd be able to make it the full race distance. For single laps, he was fine. But after about half a race distance, his left arm would be completely numb, weak, and unable to do what he wanted on the bike. Sure, his competitor Vale raced with a broken leg--but that's not the same as intermittently losing use of your control arm.

23. Dario Franchitti

Injury Sustained: Fractured vertebrae
Raced In: NASCAR, Formula 3, DTM, CART, IndyCar, ALMS, Rolex Sports Car Series, ARCA
Complex Says: Dario Franchitti's had several injuries over the course of his career. If you're a racer, you don't go as far as he has without taking some bumps. In 2003, he was riding his MV Agusta motorcycle while vacationing in Scotland when the bike experienced a mechanical failure. Franchitti fell, landing on his back and breaking a vertebrae. Initially, he hoped to be in fit racing condition by the 2003 running of the Indy 500. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

He made it back into the cockpit for Pike's Peak, where he placed a respectable fourth. However, additional complications from the injury kept him out the remainder of the 2003 season. He returned in 2004 and placed sixth in the drivers' championship. At the end of 2007, Franchitti had won his first IndyCar championship, with more to come.

22. Álvaro Bautista

Injury Sustained: Broken femur
Raced In: MotoGP
Complex Says: 2011 was a rough year in MotoGP, even without considering the tragic loss of an incredible emerging talent in Marco Simoncelli. Both Álvaro Bautista and Dani Pedrosa suffered injuries at the season opening Qatar GP. Bautista had a nasty high-speed, high-side crash during practice, when he lost control of the bike and broke his leg. He wasn't gone long, though. In fact, he missed only one race beside Qatar, and was back for round three in Portugal, where he finished 13th. In the best tradition of other MotoGP riders, Bautista got back on his bike as soon as he could.

21. Martin Brundle

Injury Sustained: Two broken ankles, multiple fractures to both feet
Raced In: Formula One, Formula Ford, Formula Three, World Sportscar Championship, 24 Hours of Le Mans, IROC Series
Complex Says: Long before the Circuit of the Americas attempted to bring the Formula One circus to the Lone Star state, Dallas represented just one of the two U.S. dates on the F1 calendar. The other was Detroit. Critics disliked how the Dallas track seemed to crack under the weight of both Texas heat and the Formula One grid. Badly placed concrete barriers at the track proved to be Martin Brundle's undoing as he bounced like a pinball between two of them during practice, breaking both front wheels off the car and landing completely upside down.

It was Brundle's first year in F1, and to add to the frustration of the season, he broke both feet and ankles in the crash. At Detroit, he finished in his best position so far: third behind Nelson Piquet and Alain Prost. Unfortunately, he and the Tyrell team were disqualified after post-race inspection revealed some irregularities with a water tank used for the car's injection system. Ultimately, all race results for the team for that year were wiped out of the official records, as though they'd never existed. Brundle came back to the sport for 1985 and continued to race professionally until 1996, still occasionally feeling the pain of those early injuries.

20. Jason Britton

Injury Sustained: Partial paralysis
Raced In: Professional sportbike stunter
Complex Says: In November 2008, Jason Britton had major back surgery to repair cumulative injuries that affected all his major senses, especially smell and taste. Discs in his vertebrae were pushing into his spinal cord, causing partial paralysis on his left side. After major surgery to his neck and back to replace the damaged discs, Britton spent some down time off the bike...but not for long. Within two months after the surgery, he was back on a bike. Doctors told him he shouldn't be back on any bike so soon, but you can't keep a true rider down. 2009 dawned, and Britton was back to his old tricks.

19. Sébastien Loeb

Injury Sustained: Humerus broken in four places
Raced In: World Rally Championship, 24 Hours of LeMans
Complex Says: Like a lot of racers, Sébastien Loeb likes to go bicycle riding when he's not on track. (We would, too, if we lived in Switzerland.) During the 2006 season, Loeb had an accident on his mountain bike. His front tire hit a rock and he launched over his handlebars, landing on his shoulder. His right humerus broke in four places, requiring surgery to set.

As a result, he missed the last four races of the 2006 season--but he won the 2006 WRC Drivers' Championship anyway. Loeb made a full recovery, and he has won every WRC Drivers' Championship from 2004 through 2011. He has also announced no plans to retire anytime soon.

18. Max Neukirchner

Injury Sustained: Broken femur, fractured vertebrae
Raced In: World Supersport, World Superbike, Moto2
Complex Says: Max Neukirchner was involved in a pileup at Turn 1 of the Monza WSBK circuit in May 2009, breaking many bones in his right leg and foot. By July, Neukirchner felt fit enough to go to Imola's World Superbike Test Week. During the second day of testing, Neukirchner had a massive high-side and landed hard on his back, fracturing several vertebrae, requiring surgery. His team, Alstare Suzuki, cut him loose after all this in favor of a fitter rider.

Neukirchner made a full recovery in the off-season, then came back with a different team in 2010 and eventually moved to the Moto2 series. He showed a lot of promise early on in his WSBK career, even seeming like a potential title candidate in 2009. We hope the stars align so that he can live up to that potential.

17. Michael Schumacher

Injury Sustained: Broken leg
Raced In: Formula One, 24 Hours of Le Mans, Formula Three, World Sportscar Championship
Complex Says: During the 1999 British Grand Prix, Schumacher experienced rear brake failure. He shunted off the track at a high-speed corner called Stowe, launching into a tire wall. He missed the next six races, but came back and grabbed pole position at the Malaysian Grand Prix. There was no hope of salvaging the Drivers' World Championship for 1999 at that point, but Ferrari went on to win the Constructors' World Championship with Schumi's help. As an exclamation point, Schumacher went on to win five of his seven championships after the accident, reigning over the sport from 2000 to 2004.

16. Dani Pedrosa

Injury Sustained: Broken collarbone
Raced In: MotoGP
Complex Says: Dani Pedrosa broke his left collarbone at the end of the 2010 MotoGP season, in which he'd come a career-best second in the world championships. He figured he'd have enough time to heal completely before the 2011 season started, but found out otherwise when his left arm went numb during the season opener in Qatar. Subsequent tests revealed that the plate that doctors were using to hold the collarbone together was pinching a nerve. After Pedrosa had the plate removed, he went on to whomp his competition, winning the very next race in Portugal. Later in 2011, he broke his right collarbone--and took three races off to make sure he was back to full fitness.

15. Sir Jackie Stewart

Injury Sustained: Broken ribs, massive shoulder and rib injuries
Raced In: Formula One, Formula Three
Complex Says: Sir Jackie Stewart's horrible accident at the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix spurred the advances in F1 safety and medical care that considerably reduced the inherent risk of the sport. He flew off the track, in pouring rain, at 165mph. Unlike today's racing, there was no run-off area or tire barrier to slow his progress. Instead, he slammed into a telephone pole and a shed before stopping in a farm building. Steering wheels at the time couldn't easily pop out to let a driver escape. Stewart was trapped beneath his steering column, sitting in fuel that had leaked into the cockpit when fuel cells were punctured in the crash. Every minute he sat waiting to be rescued was a minute closer to the fuel possibly lighting on fire.

A full 25 minutes after the crash, Stewart's rescuers managed to pull him out and load him into the back of a rickety pick-up truck for a ride to the hospital. At the time, they thought he had spinal injuries, making his rescue vehicle seem even more woefully inadequate. Stewart went on to become a vocal advocate for driver safety--and he won all three of his F1 World Championships after this accident occurred.

14. Travis Pastrana

Injury Sustained: Severed spine, broken foot, broken ankle
Raced In: Rally America Series, AMA Motocross, East Coast Supercross, X Games
Complex Says: Throughout his career, Travis Pastrana has put his body through an amazing amount of abuse. At age 14, an accident during a jump at an FMX competition completely severed his spine from his pelvis. We'll give you a moment to digest that. Doctors said he'd never walk again, and he was wheelchair-bound for several months. The doctors were wrong.

Pastrana has broken or severely injured the majority of the rest of his body since then, but he keeps going. Not only that--he keeps trying new series. At the July 2011 X Games, he broke his foot and ankle shortly before he was supposed to have his debut drive in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Is he quitting? No. He's got his sights set on NASCAR for 2012 now. 

13. Nicky Hayden

Injury Sustained: Broken wrists
Raced In: MotoGP, AMA Superbike, AMA 600 Supersport, AMA 750 Superstock, AMA Formula Extreme
Complex Says: Let's see. In 2009, Hayden was qualifying on his Ducati at Qatar when he had a truly spectacular high-side accident that sent him flying through the air over the bike. Unsurprisingly, he suffered severe back and chest pain afterward and needed stitches, though nothing was broken. Despite the pain, he raced in the Grand Prix the following day, and placed 12th. In 2010, he chipped the radius bone in his left wrist during a fall while qualifying at Brno.

Rather than sit out the race, he competed in pain, placing sixth and gaining valuable points for the championship. In 2011, he injured his right wrist during the Valencia Grand Prix, which luckily was the last race of the season. He's since had surgery to install a screw to hold the wrist together, and is planning to start the 2012 season on schedule with Ducati. If his record is anything to go by, we're sure he'll do it.

12. Nigel Mansell

Injury Sustained: Broken neck, broken vertebrae
Raced In: Formula One, CART, 24 Hours of Le Mans
Complex Says: Nigel Mansell's career was fraught with peril from the start. Unlike a lot of racers who have supportive family, Mansell financed a lot of it himself. Eventually, he started doing well in Formula Ford--so well that when he broke his neck during practice at the Brands Hatch round in 1977, he still went on to win that year's British Formula Ford championship. Doctors told him he'd never race again, but he moved on to Formula Three (a feeder series for F1).

During an F3 race, he broke some vertebrae in another crash but secured a test drive offer from Lotus F1 team owner Colin Chapman. Mansell wanted it so bad, he took a load of painkillers and managed to successfully land a test driver role for the Lotus team. And the rest, as they say, is history.

11. Mika Hakkinen

Injury Sustained: Fractured skull, severe concussion, internal bleeding
Raced In: Formula One, Formula Three, DTM
Complex Says: While qualifying for the 1995 Grand Prix of Australia at Adelaide, Mika Hakkinen's left rear tire got slashed on the track after rolling through some debris. As a result, Hakkinen shunted off the track, hit a curb, flew into the air and finally hit a wall at an estimated 120mph. Medical staff had to perform an emergency tracheotomy at the track to save Hakkinen's life. Luckily, Adelaide was the last race of the year--and the only one Hakkinen missed.

Doctors feared the possibility of his brain swelling and killing him, but he made a full recovery and went on to have his greatest success in F1 three years later. His first F1 World Championship came in 1998. At one point, Michael Schumacher said that Mika Hakkinen was the one driver in the F1 paddock that he respected.

10. Colin Edwards

Injury Sustained: Collarbone broken in three places
Raced In: WSBK, MotoGP
Complex Says: During practice for the Catalan Grand Prix, Colin Edwards had an accident that broke his right collarbone in three places, requiring a plate and several screws to patch him up. A mere nine days later, Edwards went on to take third (and the final podium place) at the British GP of Silverstone. Next time you scream when you stub your toe getting out of the shower, think of Edwards and suck it up.

9. Dave Mirra

Injury Sustained: Bacterial meningitis
Raced In: X-Games (BMX and rallycross)
Complex Says: Sometimes the scariest medical problems are the ones that creep up on you years later. Mirra had his spleen removed after an accident while riding vert in 1995, but that surgery lowered his resistance to serious infections--like bacterial meningitis. In June 2010, Mirra was hospitalized for the infection, but managed to quickly recover under the care of doctors and strong antibiotics. What's a worse injury, one to your body or one to your brain? We can't decide. All we know is, Mirra's still standing, driving, and riding in 2012.

8. Eric Bostrom

Injury Sustained: Sliced thigh
Raced In: AMA Superbike, AMA Supersport
Complex Says: In September 2010, the world was almost down one Bostrom Brother when Eric Bostrom had a nasty crash with Jordan Suzuki rider Brett McCormick. Somewhere during the course of the crash, Bostrom's footpeg broke and ripped his right thigh open, coming within a mere two centimeters of his femoral artery and associated nerves.

Don't believe a mere slice can be so nasty? The Adventure Rider Forums thread about the accident was titled, “Eric Bostrom Attacked By Shark.” On TV, it didn't look so bad, but close-ups of the wound aren't pretty. Who went back to racing after healing? Take a guess.

7. Valentino Rossi

Injury Sustained: Compound fracture
Raced In: MotoGP
Complex Says: That's seven-time MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi. He's a man who had never, ever missed a Grand Prix during his career...until he broke his leg in a nasty crash during practice at Mugello, his home circuit. That was in June 2010. Doctors thought he'd take at least six months to recover--and possibly not come back for the remainder of the season. Rossi didn't win seven world championships by lying down and doing nothing. He started doing everything he could to recover, including therapeutic exercises in swimming pools to keep mobility in the leg. Sure, he did have to wobble out to his bike on crutches at the German round of the 2010 MotoGP season--but he managed to finish fourth only five weeks after breaking that leg.

6. Mark Webber

Injury Sustained: Fractured shoulder
Raced In: Formula One
Complex Says: If you follow F1, you could be forgiven for thinking of Webber's Red Bull Racing teammate, Sebastian Vettel. As of the end of the 2011 F1 Championship, Vettel's now a two-time world champion. But back in 2010, before Vettel's first championship, teammate Mark Webber was leading the F1 Drivers' Championship with only four races remaining.

Then Webber went mountain biking with a friend the Sunday before Suzuka, which was the fourth-to-last race of the season. He hadn't gone mountain biking in two years, after a previous accident. A riding buddy crashed in front of him, leading Webber to fly through the air (sans RBR Webbercoaster) and fracture his shoulder. He had cortisone injections before two of the remaining races to dull the pain, but otherwise kept going like normal. He never told his team members about the injury--in fact, they didn't find out until a book Webber had written about the 2010 season came out.

5. Noriyuki Haga

Injury Sustained: Collarbone broken in three places
Raced In: World Superbike Championship
Complex Says: Noriyuki Haga, or “Nitro Nori” to some, crashed recently during practice at Salt Lake City. X-rays revealed that he broke his collarbone in three places. But he insisted that with the help of painkillers, he could not only compete in Superpole, but also run both races the next day. He got his wish, and did all of the above before reporting for surgery to install a plate to hold his collarbone together. To prove his fitness for the race, he did pushups with his broken collarbone. Oh, and after breaking his collarbone in the first place? He managed to ride his bike back in to the pits.

In 2009, Haga suffered a broken scapula and displaced fracture of the left wrist that required surgery. Doctors initially thought he'd also fractured two vertebrae in his spine, and would need further surgery. Later, they realized those vertebral fractures were from an EARLIER accident, and didn't need surgery after all. What did Haga do as soon as he possibly could? Get back on his bike. We could go on, but we've got other people to add to this list.

4. Felipe Massa

Injury Sustained: Fractured skull, brain contusion, career-threatening eye damage
Raced In: Formula One, Italian Formula Renault, Formula 3000
Complex Says: In a freak accident during qualifying for the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix, a suspension spring flew off the rear of Rubens Barrichello's Brawn F1 car directly ahead of Massa. It hit Massa in the helmet, and he flew off track and into a nearby tire wall at a speed of approximately 170mph. He then hit his head on the steering wheel of the car and was knocked unconscious.

The severity of his injuries meant the doctors had to put him into a medically induced coma while he healed, and for a time, doctors feared that the damage to his left eye meant he'd never race again. But Massa proved doubters wrong and was fit and ready for the 2010 season. We're not sure we would be, after going out like that.

3. Kevin Schwantz

Injury Sustained: Dislocated hip, broken arm, shattered hand and wrist
Raced In: AMA Superbike Championship, MotoGP
Complex Says: Kevin Schwantz's racing career is filled with the kind of extremely painful injuries that would have sidelined almost anyone else. Two great examples: in 1992, he dislocated his hip and broke his left forearm during a race at Assen. After having a plate put in his arm to hold it together and having a custom cast made, he was back on the bike racing within two weeks. Then, in 1994, Schwantz had what he reckons was the defining moment of his career, at Donington Park in the UK. Although Schwantz had won the 1993 World Championship title, 1994 was anything but a sure thing.

With his left wrist in a cast from a crash a few races prior, Schwantz had a huge high-side during qualifying that didn't break anything new, but exacerbated the pain of the earlier injury. Schwantz went on to win that 1994 500cc Donington Park race by beating Mick Doohan. Oh, did we mention that he did it one-handed? The left wrist kept getting tingly and numb, so Schwantz had to keep shaking it whenever he reached a safe point to do so on track. It was the last time he'd ever win a GP race--but quite possibly also his best win ever.

2. Conor Cummins

Injury Sustained: Broke five vertebrae, shattered left arm, torn ligaments and dislocation in knee, fractured pelvis, bruised lungs
Raced In: British Superstock Championship
Complex Says: After the first couple laps of the 2010 Isle of Man TT Senior race in June that year, Conor Cummins was just starting to get into the groove and push a little harder. This was after a restart provoked by fellow TT racer Guy Martin's gigantic fireball of a crash during the first start. Then Cummins' rear tire let go through a 150 mph corner, launching him into a slide and down a mountain. His bike bounced down with him. (You can see footage if you type “conor cummins crash” in a YouTube search.) Thankfully, bike and rider stayed separate, so the injuries weren't worse. “Worse” is a relative term--he now has steel rods holding his spine in place, and they have to stay in for a couple of years.

Still, Cummins was determined to get back to racing. Recovery was long, but he got back on a bike in March 2011 and competed through the whole season of the British Superstock Championship. As of the end of the season, he says he's finally starting to feel back to normal, and looks forward to regaining his speed from 2010 in 2012. Had he not crashed out at the 2010 TT, he looked to be in serious contention for a win. Sure, he wasn't back riding too quickly against doctors' wishes. With injuries that bad and a crash that scary, it's amazing he's competing at all and regaining his old form. We're pretty sure we couldn't do that.

1. Alex Zanardi

Injury Sustained: Lost both legs (and 3/4 his body's blood volume)
Raced In: Formula One, CART, Formula Three, World Touring Car Championship
Complex Says: Even the best drivers get bored. That's why they switch series sometimes. Zanardi wasn't fantastic at Formula One, so he went to CART and won two world championships. After a second stint in F1, he went back to CART and experienced one of the most horrifying non-fatal crashes in the history of motorsport. Zanardi was leading a race at the Lausitzring in Germany, and was nearing the end.

As he left the pits, he spun out and into oncoming traffic. Patrick Carpentier managed to avoid him, but Alex Tagliani t-boned Zanardi's car just behind the steering wheel. Both car and driver were broken. (Notice the flesh in the photo above.) Zanardi had special prosthetic legs made for him that are separate from the feet, so he can change foot size whenever he needs to. He's maintained a positive attitude, returning to racing in 2003. He has even won a few races. We can't think of a better way to conquer what would keep lesser men down.