DirtonDirt exclusive
Ferguson, fiancee play role of helping hands
By Bryan Ault
Special to DirtonDirt
Carson Ferguson (heathlawsonphotos.com)
When Bob Pierce suffered a stroke July 15 while on the grounds of Adams County Speedway in Corning, Iowa, Lucas Oil Late Model Series regular Carson Ferguson was there to offer assistance to the Hall of Famer and his wife Angie.
When Garrett Alberson suffered facial injuries during Aug. 8’s Sunoco North-South 100 at Florence Speedway in Union, Ky., and his wife, Dani, needed someone to care for the couple’s young son, Ferguson was there again with his fiancee, Makenna Adkins, to help a fellow racer in need.
Ferguson, 26, of Lincolnton, N.C., never could have expected to play a role in two of the summer’s most high-profile medical emergencies in Dirt Late Model racing, but there he was, right on the scene both times. While competing in last weekend’s Northern Allstars Late Model Series doubleheader at Circle City Raceway in Indianapolis, Ind., and Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway — where he tallied finishes of fourth and third — he reflected on finding himself so close to the frightening episodes.
Noting that neither him or his fiancee want any public praise for being of assistance to their fellow competitors, Ferguson felt they served a bigger purpose in helping two racers and their families.
“I feel I was just the one that God put in position for each situation,” Ferguson said. “But I feel like if you look at crews that are close, (for example) you got Josh Rice and (Brandon) Overton, so, you know, if something happened to Josh, Overton’s going to take care of him, and vice versa. I was just the one that, you know, was asked to step up, but like I said, I don’t think it was anything that anybody else wouldn’t have done.”
Back on July 15, Ferguson was up early the morning after recording a 21st-place finish in Adams County’s Lucas Oil Series feature and taking down a sign on the top of his merchandise trailer when Angie Pierce called for help because her 74-year-old husband’s medical emergency in their motorhome. Ferguson was parked right next to the Pierces, who had also spent the night at the track after their son was victorious in the midweek event, and he quickly climbed down and was among the first to learn of Bob’s condition.
Ferguson helped emergency responders move Bob Pierce out of the camper. He also offered a calming influence to Bob as Angie dealt with the arriving medics.
“I didn’t have to do much, but just being there, I think, for support was big,” Ferguson said. “It was kind of more of just being there in the moment so that Angie could, you know, instruct the ambulance people where to go, and it allowed her to just kind of do two things at once, I guess you could say.”
Ferguson certainly understood how serious Bob’s health issue could be. When he saw one side of Pierce’s body had gone limp, he called his stepsister, who happens to be a nurse.
“She kind of informed me, you just gotta wait it out and let the ambulance get there so they can get the medicine that he needs inside him,” Ferguson said. “I don’t really know what I would have had to do in that situation. Luckily, nothing, you know, nothing drastic, because everything was drastic. I didn’t have to be in a position to really do anything … just be there for moral support, for Angie and Bob.”
Pierce was life-flighted to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Neb., where he underwent successful surgeries to remove a blood clot in his carotid artery and insert a stent to prevent any recurrence in the future. The Pierces publicly thanked Ferguson for his help, and Ferguson has seen Bob back at the track since then filling his customary position as Bobby’s crew chief.
Three weeks later, Ferguson and Adkins became Guardian Angels for Alberson, the 37-year-old Lucas Oil Series regular from Las Cruces, N.M., who was hospitalized with a broken nose, fractured facial bones and a laceration above his eye after a flying object smashed into his helmet on a lap-60 restart of the North-South 100.
“Garrett and them, they’re like family to us at this point,” Ferguson said. “o just taking care of their little boy while they were, you know, first getting to the hospital, and taking care of his merchandise trailer and motorhome and everything like that, was good.”
Ferguson was lined up side-by-side with Alberson on the lap-60 restart. When Alberson drifted high off turn two and ran into the cushion, Ferguson easily drove away but knew something was amiss when Lucas Oil Series officials red-flagged the field.
“I had obviously assumed he was going to be on my outside coming off of two with a run off the top, but they yelled, ‘Red!’ or whatever on the radio,” Ferguson said. “Obviously you knew something was wrong, but we came back around and his gloves were off and he was out of the car and stuff, so we didn’t really know what had happened. I mean, we get hit with rocks and stuff a lot, but nothing to really make you stop on the track, and obviously that was more than a rock. You know, it was a boulder of some sort.
“You didn’t know how bad it was until he got on the stretcher … when they rode by (during the red with Alberson on a cart strapped to a backboard), then that was kind of like, well, dang. I pulled (Lucas Oil Series technical director) Kenute (Mausehund) over to the car when he rode by and he didn’t have much information, obviously, at the time. He just said he was alert and he had just got hit with something.”
While the field was under red-flag conditions, a familiar figure caught Ferguson’s eye: his fiancee Adkins, running across the track to his car, trying to get his attention. It prompted a curious smile from her man.
“She was (watching) in the infield, and they don’t let people cross the track, and this was before they transported Garrett off the track,” Ferguson said. “So I just seen her running on the track, and I was like, ‘What is she doing?’ I didn’t want to get DQ’d, you know, and she was running.”
Adkins let Ferguson know she was going to help take care of the Alberson’s 2-year-old son, Weston, so Alberson’s wife, Dani, could be with her husband as they transported him to a Cincinnati hospital.
“I feel like we’re pretty close to them,” Ferguson said of the Albersons. “And, you know, they came to our shop for a few days over the offseason. We went to theirs and really developed a good relationship with them. I think (Makenna) just kind of took it upon herself to go do that.”
Meanwhile, Ferguson had to finish the remainder of the 100-lapper, which became a race of attrition before its dramatic conclusion with Rice emerging victorious. Flipping the mental switch after seeing a fellow competitor laying on the backstretch and trying to get back into racing mode was hard.
“Obviously, when anybody gets hurt, you’re thinking about it in the race, and then when it’s a close friend like that, you’re obviously worried,” Ferguson said. “But at the end of the day, you kind of just put your trust in the first responders and everybody that was on hand right there, and then, you know, you still have a job to do, so you can’t let it affect that.
“But, obviously, in the back of your mind, you know … I didn’t forget about it. I was so caught up in the moment, and then I had actually came and pitted and I saw his crew guy. He was crying, you know, and I was like, you know, ‘How bad is it?’ ”
Ferguson, his car missing much of his driver’s side doorpanel thanks to a huge, multicar pileup on a lap-10 restart, crossed the finish line in eighth place for a career-best finish in the crown jewel event. Afterwards he and his fiancee got right to work helping the Albersons; while Makenna watched Weston, Ferguson and his crew worked together with Alberson’s crew and Lucas Oil series director Rick Schwallie to move the Roberts Motorsports hauler and Alberson’s merchandise trailer to the tour’s headquarters in nearby Batavia, Ohio, just east of Cincinnati.
In addition, when Ferguson hitched his motorhome to his own merchandise trailer following the North-South 100, Weston tagged along with his babysitter. It brought a moment of levity to an evening filled with stretched nerves.
“Luckily at that point (during the red flag) of the night, (Weston) was sleeping,” Ferguson said. “But, of course, he woke up. I came around to the merchandise area, and Weston’s in the front seat of my motorhome, acting like he’s driving, and it’s like, you know, (after midnight). I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh, he’s supposed to be asleep.’ But they’ve raised him very well, and he’s a very good kid that’s easy to take care of.”
Ferguson, of course, is happy and relieved to see Bob Pierce back at the track helping his superstar son Bobby, who currently leads the World of Outlaws Late Model Dirt Series points standings. He also looks forward to seeing Alberson again after he recovers from successful surgery on his face; his time-table for returning to racing is likely more than a month.
“I'm glad Bob’s able to, you know, get back with what he was doing,” Ferguson said. “I don’t really know the long-term effects of something like that, so hopefully he can stay as long as he can, you know, with Bobby, because they’re obviously a dynamic duo.
“And then Garrett, you know, I just hope he’s able to come back and not be gun-shy of any sort. It’s going to be hard to, I’m sure, putting his helmet on the first time, just with the impact he took on the face and the fractures he has on his cheekbones and stuff like that. But, you know, he’s bounced back through a lot. He flipped at (Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., in May) and unloaded a backup car and acted like nothing happened. I think as a racer and us doing it for a living, it kind of teaches you, you know, just to put stuff behind you as quick as possible.”
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