The wrecks get real

As I mentioned yesterday, my favorite part of the Dan Patrick Show's insane setup in Victory Field's PNC Plaza is the go-kart track, where a couple of wrecks have taken place (boys will be boys, after all).

Those wrecks had so far resulted in nothing more than humorous antics: In one, a member of the Danettes racked himself on his kart's steering column, in the other, a Danette got spun around and ended up driving the opposite direction of the other drivers.

Today, the fans (and a certain intrepid photog) watching the go-kart races got a little more than they were expecting.

After the Dan Patrick Show goes off the air, it is followed by The Box Score, an online recap featuring the Danettes and, sometimes, a guest or two. The Box Score's guest today happened to be Tony "Goose" Siragusa, a former defensive tackle who started his twelve-year NFL career with the Indianapolis Colts and now serves as a sideline analyst for the NFL on FOX broadcasts.

Siragusa took one look at the go-kart track and decided he had to try it out. And who can blame him? It looks like a blast:

Woo-hoo!

So Siragusa folded himself into one of the go-karts and a couple of DIRECTV staffers manned the other karts to race him. After a couple of laps, they begin bumping each other (again, boys will be boys -- even when they're grown men.)

One of the staffers seemed to be having a little trouble controlling his kart -- he had already hit the wall once, forcing it back into the intrepid photog from earlier (hint: it was me). I took a step back to avoid the errant driver's wall-rubbing, and on the next lap all hay broke loose:

Get it?

That wall used to be straight. This is what changed it:

Crunch.

Yes, that's the same staffer who had already bumped the wall once. This time, however, it wasn't all his fault. As he came around the corner in the inside lane, Siragusa forced him outside and, subsequently, into the fence. Thankfully, it was in an area removed from the majority of the crowd:

The space between the crowd and the wreck? That's where I was standing.

Siragusa thought it was hilarious:

Laugh it up.

The higher-ups at DIRECTV and the Dan Patrick Show were not so amused. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries, although another DTV staffer did get ran into pretty hard by the barrier. He complained of knee and ankle pain but refused medical treatment. He did happily accepted a ride back to DTV's headquarters in the parking lot:

He's the one not driving.

Siragusa made up for wrecking (no pun intended) the go-kart fun by climbing over the now-sideways barrier and signing autographs for several fans before heading on set to appear on the Box Score:

"Yeah, it was pretty sweet until we almost killed that dude."

And as for me? Well, thanks to dumb luck or fate or both, I'll live to photograph another day.

Michael Raines defies death as a Media Relations intern for the Indianapolis Indians. He can be reached at therainesdelay@gmail.com