Braced for a comeback

Chelsea Herbert is ready to go racing after an accident almost two years ago that left her questioning her place in the sport. By Ian Anderson.

Chelsea Herbert is back. Well, she’s ready to go racing – it’s just that she’ll have to cool her jets for a little while longer.

Herbert broke her back in a crash in January last year, but has recovered physically and mentally and will compete in this season’s Toyota 86 Championship.

However, the start of the season was this week pushed back a month after restrictions around the Covid-19 pandemic saw the planned opening round scheduled for Hampton Downs on November 12-14 pushed back to the end of the series in April.

Instead, Herbert’s return to the track will be at Pukekohe Park Raceway at the start of December – almost two years since her accident.

Last January, Herbert was competing in the Toyota Racing Series, the leading single-seater class in New Zealand as just one of two Kiwi drivers among a field of 20.

At Teretonga, Herbert’s car collided with a wall soon after coming out of pit-lane for a qualifying session.

‘‘It wasn’t very exciting,’’ she said. ‘‘You’re almost half-lying down in the car – you sit on a funny angle, and you have tight race belts, so you’re a little bit hunched.

‘‘As soon as I hit the wall, it compressed my back even more.’’

The accident resulted in Herbert breaking her T11 and T12 vertebrae, but she still doesn’t understand how the crash occurred.

‘‘We’ve looked at the data, we’ve looked at the video. There’s nothing I did, nothing the car did, it was simply a freak accident.

‘‘As a driver that’s quite frustrating, because you want to learn from your mistakes – especially ones that result with you in a back brace.’’

She said the immediate pain was frightening. ‘‘No matter how I moved, it wouldn’t stop hurting.

‘‘I disconnected my radio, and popped my belts and went to pull myself out of the car. I grabbed on to the halo and tried to pull and I just couldn’t even move – I was like ‘oh my gosh’, I was freaking out. And because I’d disconnected my radio I couldn’t get back to the team and ask for help.

‘‘Fortunately it happened right out of pit gate, so everyone could see me, but it feels like time slows down and that you’re there for half-an-hour, like ‘come help me’.

‘‘As soon as you get on the happy gas, you’re sweet – I was telling the team I’ll be back in time to race. When I got to hospital, the team were calling and saying the car was back together, there was hardly any damage . . . ‘Will you be back for the race or more like tomorrow morning?’.

‘‘I said I didn’t think I’d make it tonight but would definitely be there tomorrow morning, then the nurse walked in and he’s like ‘oh, I’m so sorry, you’ve broken your back’.

‘‘First thing I did was start wiggling my toes. Can I walk, what does that mean?’’

While Herbert quickly discovered she’d escaped further serious damage, she was still downcast about the outcome.

‘‘With a six-week series, I knew straight away my whole series is over. It sucked, it really did.

‘‘But I was super-lucky, I clean fractured the bone with no ligaments involved. That made the whole process a lot less painful and a lot shorter.’’

Herbert was in a back brace for two months that ran from her collarbone to her tailbone.

‘‘I wasn’t allowed to take it off at all – no showering, this is in the heat of summer, it wasn’t very romantic,’’ she laughed.

The brace came off one day before New Zealand went into lockdown.

Herbert said she had wonderful support from her partner, mother and father, along with assistance from a nurse, a physiotherapist and a programme at the Formula Fit gym.

But the mental side of the accident and injury was almost tougher than the physical aspect.

‘‘I’ve had a mental skills coach since 2015 and she’s amazing.

‘‘At the time, it was still race season, you’re still in the hype of everything – I don’t think I took a moment to properly be like ‘wow, I’ve broken my back, I’ve missed out on race season’.

‘‘My spirits were probably too high considering the circumstances. So eventually when the storm settles, it starts to hit home.

‘‘My mental coach helped me through that, gave me the skills to work through the next few months.

‘‘The biggest struggle was when I recovered – trying to get back into the sport, the sponsorship side of things, you doubt your ability and even if you’re good enough to be driving.

‘‘That stuff everyone goes through, but it’s heightened when you’re in bed in a back

brace.’’

Herbert started motor racing as a 7-year-old – but not before an agonising wait. ‘‘My dad was really interested in racing, he has a race-car fabrication and engineering business. He raced a little bit and I have an older brother so when he got to eight, dad was asking him if he wanted to [try] gokarting.

‘‘And I came running in and I was like ‘Hi!’ cos I really wanted to.

‘‘He said he’d give my brother a shot first and then I could start when I was seven. So I had to wait 12 months and it was literally the longest 12 months of my life. Twelve months is a long time for a 6-year-old.’’

Brother Joel now races in the BMW series and motorsport remains a family affair with the support of dad Mark and mum Donna and the wider family.

This season, Herbert will be part of a three-car Heart of Racing entry, run by International Motorsport, in the Best Bars Toyota 86 Championship series.

Herbert acknowledged she was woefully short of practice time.

‘‘We’ve done virtually no testing – I’ve had about half-anhour in the car.

‘‘I’ve got a simulator at home. But I’m literally a pen and paper girl. I try and sit down at a simulator and drive, but I really struggle with it.

‘‘Heart of Racing team have been really good at sending us through videos of previous seasons . . . but there’s nothing like seat-time.

‘‘I’ve been trying to get out in the go-kart but you can only have 10 people at the track, so it’s hard to get everything prepared in the week when you’re still working, then get there, book your spot and actually be able to get on to the track.’’

The Heart of Racingsupported team raises significant funds for Starship Hospital, which means a great deal to the 22-year-old marketing expert.

‘‘I was diagnosed around the age of 12 or 13 with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis.

‘‘I was in and out of hospital a lot . . . it’s going to be great to help raise money for Starship and hopefully help kids to go on to live healthy and adventure-filled lives . . .’’