First thing I remember is waking up in the hospital room and turning my head and seeing my boyfriend sitting in a chair with my destroyed helmet on his lap and the intense pain in my head and neck. How did I get here, 2023 was supposed to be my year?
Maybe I should start from the beginning. My name is Bronti Verbeek, I live in Calgary, Alberta and I love riding and racing motorcycles.
I first started riding street bikes in 2016. I was in university still and thought that it looked like a lot of fun. I was just drawn to it and knew it was something I needed to do. Against the advice of my boyfriend at the time I bought a 2005 GSX-R750. I named her bumblebee as she was yellow and black. In hindsight a 750 was a big bike for a first-time bike owner, but I made it work and in no time at all found my way to the racetrack and the world of motorcycle road racing.
I’ve won championships in Intermediate Open Sportbike, Women’s Open and 2nd place in Intermediate Superbike in 2020, narrowly missing out on winning the championship by one point. In 2021, I won the Sportsman championship and received Rookie Pro of the Year (I am the only Woman racer to have received Rookie Pro of the year).
Fast forward to the end of 2022 and it was pretty terrific. It was my second year racing in the Pro class on my ’07 GSX-R1000 and I set two lap records at both Stratotech Raceway and Rad Torque Raceway. I won the Sportsman championship and the Women’s championship as welI as 3rd in the Dash For Cash championship and 5th in Expert Superbike. I was consistently among the top fastest people in the club and was riding at a high level as things were coming together for next year. Little did I know that the next spring my riding career and the way of life almost changed forever.
At the end of the ‘22 season my plan was to upgrade my equipment and to get on something newer with electronics. My bike was outdated, and it was time to take another step. So, I sold my GSXR and I ended up buying a 2017 BMW S 1000 RR. I was very excited to ride something different and especially a BMW; it had been my dream bike for a while.
My first ride on the BMW was at Rocky Mountain Motorsports track day. I loved the motor, knowing that the capability of this machine was so much higher than anything I had ever ridden or raced on before. I knew it would take some time for me to get used to this new bike and all of the changes and adapt my riding to get the most out of it. There were some things with the bike that needed tweaking to make it work for me, the forks for example, riding position and the tires. After the track day I went out to Area 27 with the On Track Performance crew and taught at Academy 27. It was a two day school, and I taught on my BMW. It was good to have more seat time on it and try to figure out anything that needed changes, and just getting comfortable riding it. When teaching, depending on the pace of course it’s not the same as getting to ride for myself at a pace where I’m learning and working on my own riding. It was good to have the time on the bike, but I definitely felt like I needed more time at pace for myself to get comfortable and gel with the bike.
Fast forward one week after teaching at Area 27, it was the first race round for the EMRA and it was the Western Canadian Championship at Rad Torque Raceway. I qualified on the Friday, it went okay. I wasn’t at the pace I wanted to be at right away, but I was working at it. Saturday was race day. I was registered to race in three races. I finished the first two races of the day in 5th and 9th. The last race of the day is the Expert Superbike Race, it’s the most important race of the day and it’s what earns someone the No. 1 plate in the club. I’m out there in a group with other racers, there are three in front of me and one behind me. It’s a battle for 5th place. There are only a couple of laps left in the race I’m gaining on the group in front of me and planning my attack and passing them. I get into turn 4 deeper on the brakes and I’m planning on passing at least one if not two of them by the next turn 5. The racer in front of suddenly at the apex of the turn brakes because of the rider in front of him. I would have run into the back of him so I gently touched my front brake to avoid hitting him and us both wiping out. I lost the front wheel and I low sided sliding on my side.
The next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital laying on a hospital table with a neck brace on. I asked my boyfriend Brad what happened and he told me I had an accident and that the rider who was behind me had rode his motorcycle over my head at speed. After my head was hit by the motorcycle, I slid underneath the air fence and right into a concrete wall. It was just a series of unlikely and unfortunate events., and I was really fortunate to make it out of that accident. My friends and people who saw the crash thought I was dead when they watched it happen.
I got discharged from the hospital and the Doctors ordered a MRI for my brain to make sure there were not any bleeds. The next few weeks were some of the hardest weeks I’ve ever gone through. I had bad vertigo with intense dizziness and nausea and felt really off balance. My perception was way off, and I had a hard time sitting down, let alone walking or standing. My energy levels were very low, and I slept a lot. My mood was also affected as well, I had put so much into racing: money, time, my work, and then I got so hurt and it was just intense feelings of disappointment. I had just picked up a big sponsor for the year and was excited to do well for them and to reward them for their support.
I ended up seeing a number of specialists who helped me rehab my vision as well as soft tissue injuries and Musculoskeletal injury in my neck and back. The next fews weeks with all that treatment I was improving. I missed a few schools , and the first rounds of the EMRA but I was getting better and August 15 was the next race wknd and I wanted to see if I was good to go. OTP had a school the weekend before and Brad said I needed to ride there before I could even think about lining up in a Pro Superbike race. Little did I know I was about to have it taken away again. And this time it would be even worse.
I hope you will join me here on InsideMotorcycles.com in the coming weeks and months as I take readers along for the ride from the the lowest points of my career to getting back on the starting grid in 2024 and beyond. It has definitely been an adventure and believe me when I say that the best is yet to come.
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