In 2021, Desson Pursley was driving a midget car in Arizona when his whole life changed. While battling with another driver for a chance to advance to the next round, he crashed, his car flipping several times in the crash, which left the then 17-year-old with a broken neck, completely severing his C4 vertebra. At the hospital, doctors sent him for surgery. Pursley woke up to learn that he was now “incomplete quadriplegia” – a term for partial paralysis in all four limbs.
Luckily, Persley doesn’t remember much about that terrifying moment.
“I got stuck in front of the fence with another car in (Turn) 3 on a really fast track for midget cars,” he says. “I went back-to-back to the end a couple of times. I don’t really remember the accident – I was killed.”
Pursley remembers the long journey since then.
Parsley in the hospital
“I was completely paralyzed after the surgery,” he says. “It took years of rehabilitation. “Now, my left side is definitely a little weaker than my right. As far as going inside a race car, I don’t really notice it at all, but if you asked me to lift a quarter off the ground with my right or left hand, you would definitely notice it. Will see.
You heard that right: A few years after breaking his neck and waking up to be told he was paralyzed, Persley is back racing. “There are a lot of doctors out there, and everybody, just tell me I’m a miracle,” he says.
This week, he’s behind the wheel of a midget racer again, competing in the Chili Bowl in Tulsa, Oklahoma. But the road – or, perhaps, the dirt path – that Persley took to get here is filled with anything but easy breaks.
“Some people are lucky”
It took about a week to get the feeling back in his right leg, Persley recalls. Gradually, sensation returned throughout his body. But one thing was strong from the moment he could talk: his desire to get back in a race car.
“As soon as he came off the ventilator, he was telling us, ‘When I’ll run again, when I’ll run again,'” recalls his mother Shawnda. “Did we believe he was going to race again? No, not at that time. We were just hoping he would have a little hope.”
Shonda stayed by her son’s side during the difficult days in the hospital and beyond. “Desson’s determination was so great that I knew we had to get him to the best places to continue his healing process. It was a trip I wish no one had had – but it’s not a trip I’ll tell you I wish we hadn’t done. Whatever has happened, has happened for a reason.”
Pursley during his recovery
Of course, Persley had to reinvent himself. But he also discovered that there were more people around him than he expected. She certainly heard words of encouragement from friends and family — and from new friends, too. Justin Grant (2022 USAC Sprint Car Champion) and NASCAR driver JJ Yeley arrive. Strangers also did the same.
“I say it every time: I can’t thank you enough for the people who — whether it was on Facebook, the racing community — reached out and helped,” Pursley says. They would just reach out and send, like, ‘get well soon’ or any kind of message, it meant a lot to me.
“And that’s what inspired me to get out of bed and climb back into one of those animals,” he says, pointing toward the track in Tulsa.
One person in particular helped Pursley understand what was next for him as he lay in a hospital bed.
“A good source we had was Dr. (Terry) Trammell of IndyCar,” says Pursley. “He reached out to us and told us to contact Robert Wickens early on, because we didn’t know what it was going to look like.”
Robert Wickens suffered a crash in IndyCar at Pocono in 2018 that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Despite having hand controls, Wickens was never able to get back behind the wheel of a race car one day. Pursley knew that despite so much hard work, his comeback was not possible.
“Some people get lucky,” Persley says.
back on track
Whether it was luck, determination, a higher power, or some combination of the three that helped put Persley’s tragic accident in the rear view, he is now back in the driver’s seat. He first had to readjust himself: “Running too hard,” as he says, when he got back on track after being given the all-clear to race again. Then, “tone it down a bit” – only to realize he needs some of that edge.
“About a year or so I think it took me to get back to the place where I was comfortable in the car and making the decisions I really wanted to make.”
Pursley believes the accident has made him a better racer. “People say on the outside that I’m a much smarter racer now,” he says. “At first, I thought it was like, ‘Oh, I’m going to prove these people wrong.’ I am not scared. I can do it.'”
He proved it sooner than anyone would have thought.
Pursley during the 2024 USAC season
He says, “I remember waking up in the hospital – and I don’t remember exactly how many (days) it had been, but my parents told me about my broken neck and (I) couldn’t move. Had been.” Like, ‘Wow, does this mean I can’t run Chili Bowl?'”
His accident happened in November, and no, he wouldn’t be ready to race again just two months later. But 14 months? Yes.
Pursley was back in Tulsa to race at the Chili Bowl Nationals in 2023. He came back again in 2024, and finished fourth in the main event, making his way through the soup from D-Main.
“Growing up here (near Tulsa), this is one of the biggest races I keep my eye on,” Persley says. “I have been coming here since I was four or five years old. This place is special. This place is just a place I want to conquer. I want one of those little golden drillers everyone talks about. I have been close. I have done everything except win.”
He gets his real chance this weekend: Because the Toyota-powered driver drove his Keith Kunz Motorsports Midget to second place in Wednesday night’s preliminary test, he’s moved into the main event. All he has to do is take home the trophy.
This would be a comeback story for Pursley, if he didn’t already have one.
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