During the Super Late Model portion of the CARS Tour season opener at Southern National Motorsports Park, series flagman Brandon Willard had a medical emergency that caused the race to be stopped.
As laps clicked off during the 150-lap race, Willard suddenly vanished from visibility in the flag stand. He fell to the floor of the flag stand as he was having a seizure. CARS Tour officials without the use of the track lights or a flagman were able to get the cars slowed and stopped as track and series personnel rushed to the scene.
Quick work by several people in attendance including track owner Michael Diaz got Willard out of the flag stand and to the ground where medical staff could tend to him. Eventual he came to while still laying on the ground and was taken to a nearby hospital where he was treated and released on the same night.
It was a scary situation for the Willard family, Brandon’s dad, Danny is the assistant Race Director and his grandfather, who everyone calls Pops, also works on the CARS Tour staff. For Willard, it was one of the worst seizures he’s had in his life and one that’s taking him some time to get over.
“I’m trying to get back in shape,” Willard told RACE22.com. “It literally takes all my strength, as if I’ve never done it before. It’s weird, it’s hard to explain and it’s like I’ve got to learn everything over again. I put a pair of skates on that Wednesday after that and it’s like I’ve never done it before. Basically, I have to learn everything over again. It’s hard to explain. It’s like I have to learn everything over again.”
Willard’s problems started at a young age but it wasn’t until three years ago that things took a turn for the worse. The seizure he had at Southern National is one of the two worst.
“When I was real little me and my dad would play video games at nine, ten years old and I’d lock up and stare and just lock up and stare. We didn’t think too much about it. We’d just keep going and my dad would be talking to me and I’d just lock up and stare. I’d be looking him dead in the eye and lock up and stare. Then we had to go get it checked out.”
That led to a trip to the doctor and they found out he’d been having small seizures which led to the locking up.
“Nothing big at this point. It was when I got 15-16 years old. I was working at Franklin County (Speedway) and it was the season opener and I woke up that Sunday morning and that’s when the first big one hit. I woke up and put my socks on, it was early in the morning in 2016 and I don’t remember anything but putting my socks on. I don’t remember anything from that day. My dad said I was shaking and was kicking the wall. When I have a seizure he said I get really sick and I start shaking and obviously I bite my tongue, eyes roll back in my head and he has to roll me over.”
Willard says that all of his seizures are different but the one at Southern National has been totally different.
“They’ve all been different. The Southern National one has been different. Those two have been really extreme. Minus the ones that happen last weekend, they usually happen because they say I’m sleep deprived and like if I don’t get enough sleep or drink an energy drink to hype me up or keep me going. If I don’t get enough sleep I’d get up and I’d have little lockups and it would lead up to a big seizure.”
Willard is puzzled why the one at Southern National happened.
“Southern National, those ones, my dad and I have been talking and we don’t know why those happened. I’ve been taking my medication and I keep my body in good shape. You know me, I’m an athlete. I like to stay in good shape. I speed skate and go to the gym.”
The medication he takes is to help him sleep and to stay focused as well as keep him from having seizures.
One of the things Willard has noticed that comes along with his seizures is a loss of memory.
“I’m having trouble remembering stuff. I’m still having trouble remembering stuff from the past, even before Southern National. My dad’s been asking me about things and I don’t remember things. Like he asked me about the CARS Tour banquet and I don’t remember it. It’s like he asked me who was sitting at our table and I’m like no, I can’t remember that. He’s like do you remember where it was and I was like yeah, I remember where it was.”
Willard says that he’s had memory loss before but not as bad as this time.
“I’m not joking with you, it’s weird. I can’t explain it, I don’t know how it’s just after effects. My dads like do you think it’ll come back and do we need to go get checked. I’ve had issues with remembering things in the past after but I don’t think they’ve been as bad. It always seems to come back. This has been pretty crazy. It’s been pretty bad. I just hope it can come back in the long run.”
Willard does remember the battle for the win in the Late Model Stock Car portion of the race but doesn’t remember anything else.
“I remember the finish of the Late Model race. I remember the last ten laps. I don’t remember anything of the morning. I don’t remember it. I was watching the finish with Pierce and Berry going at it. I remember that. I don’t remember the Super race, I don’t remember the seizure. I didn’t remember getting to the hospital, but I do now because my dad reminded me that I was being ill to the nurses and now I remember that.”
Willard says the outpouring of support from the racing community has been overwhelming. He says people he doesn’t know and people he hasn’t talked to in a long time have reached out to him since the incident.
“It’s been real nice,” commented Willard. “A lot of people don’t realize how great the racing community is. You think that there’s only a select group that cares about you, if you go down or whatever but I’ve had all kinds of people call or text or Facebook or Instagram. It lit up a smile on my face from ear to ear. I was stacked with messages. It’s so great. It was awesome. I loved it so much. You think you’ve only got a group but there are a lot more people that truly care about you and that’s why the racing community has so many that care about you so much.”
Willard says he’s thankful for the staff that helped him and to Southern National Motorsports Park for having installed the new flag stand that very well could have saved his life.
“Diaz and his crew and the whole Southern National team did a great job. I love going there and the flag stand is so much better. I was amazed, it blew me away with how great it was. If this would have happened last year or sometime it might have been worse. Diaz and the crew did such a great job. I can’t thank them enough.”
Willard says he’s hoping to be back to 100% this weekend but doesn’t know if he will be and plans to take it easy.
“I’m not trying to go out and do a full show or anything or go 100%,” Willard continued. “I’m trying to ease myself back into. My body hurts. My muscles burn, my arms, my legs burn. I have muscles I never knew were there. I can’t sit around and hope for it to heal on its own, I gotta ease myself into it.
“I’m planning on taking it easy. I’m planning to get there before qualifying and seeing how I feel then. I can’t answer the question if I’m going to do everything. I did my first full workout Tuesday morning and my body was so sore. Flagging, you know how hard I like to go. I’ll see how I feel and if I feel bad I’ll tell dad to fill in for me. He said we could switch position but obviously, I don’t want to sit on the sidelines and miss anything.”
Willard’s favorite part of being a flagman is the responses he gets from fans about what he does to add a little flavor to his job.
“I like to entertain. I like to hear all the good jobs. I like to hear it from the fans. It makes me love my job. It’s not about what I do, it’s about what people think of me and making people smile. Some nights they look at me and tell me I’m more entertaining than the race and that’s what makes me want to do it.”
Clearly, Willard isn’t ready to let this setback keep him down and he’s hoping that it’s just a set up for a comeback to be even better than before.
“Hopefully, everything is 100% and we can get back and be stronger than ever.”
Cover photo by Kimberly Austin
