\u201cThe St John Ambulance people there were so good, and at the hospital that night Vinny had a CT scan, which showed the fractures in his back. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe found out on Sunday morning when the surgeons came around that he would be okay without an operation. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe has to rest up and not strain. He\u2019s not in any restrictive cast or strapping. They like to allow a little movement. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s in charge of how long it will take to heal. If he does all the right things, it will be 12 weeks.\u201d <\/p>\n
Dylan MacGregor said his son was a \u201cfocused, intelligent, driven young man\u201d, so he expected the 12-week target to be met.<\/p>\n
Vinny MacGregor stands next to his 5B ministock before a meeting. He is recovering at home after crashing in the 1200cc championship at Gisborne’s Awapuni Speedway on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
MacGregor senior, 44, had a crash of his own in March 2024 and hasn\u2019t raced since. <\/p>\n
The Gisborne Herald report about the incident said video replays showed his TQ midget somersaulting 10 times before coming to rest on its roof. TQ (three-quarter) midgets are high-powered, lightweight, open-wheel race cars known for speed and agility. <\/p>\n
MacGregor walked away from the crash and praised race car safety. But he said he hadn\u2019t \u201cbounced back 100%\u201d and, having won all he wanted to win, he saw no point in going back if he was below his best. <\/p>\n
\u201cI have seen it as \u2018I am a has-been and Vinny is a gonna-be\u2019,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve found watching Vinny so much more enjoyable.\u201d <\/p>\n
Asked whether he was hesitant about helping Vinny get back into racing, MacGregor said: \u201cIt\u2019s what he wants to do. I\u2019ve seen ministocks have much bigger crashes and the drivers walk out fine. He has all the top-notch safety gear. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as the TQ goes, it\u2019s a case of when, not if, you\u2019re going to have a decent accident. That\u2019s the nature of the sport, so you prepare for it and take all the precautions to make sure you aren\u2019t hurt. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think once speedway is in your blood, it\u2019s pretty hard to get it out.\u201d <\/p>\n
Speedway is important to Vinny, but it\u2019s not his only enthusiasm. <\/p>\n
He played football when he was at Awapuni School and Gisborne Intermediate, and has continued at Lindisfarne College in Hastings. He\u2019s a left winger, scoring goals and making them. <\/p>\n
Chess is another interest he pursued competitively. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s in fifth form \u2013 Year 11, they call it,\u201d his father said. \u201cLast year he was junior dux at Lindsfarne.\u201d <\/p>\n
Friends suggested to MacGregor that boarding school would make the most of Vinny\u2019s talents, and the teen did his own research and chose Lindisfarne.<\/p>\n
He has been a boarder there from Year 9 onwards, coming home \u201c90%\u201d of the weekends. <\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes they do pretty cool stuff and the kids want to stay there for the weekend, and in winter he plays football.\u201d <\/p>\n
MacGregor said allowing his son to go away to school was one of the hardest things he\u2019d had to do, but it had been \u201cgreat\u201d for Vinny. <\/p>\n
Having cut his teeth with Eastland Kart Club, Vinny continued to call Gisborne his racing base when he got into speedway while at school in Hawke\u2019s Bay. But his father said he was planning a change in division. <\/p>\n
\u201cVinny is 15 and was in his third season of ministocks, but he\u2019s opted not to do them next season. He wanted to drive my TQ, but Rod McIndoe [Gisborne Speedway Club member] offered his saloon car and, if he hadn\u2019t had his crash, Vinny would have test-driven it at the end of the meeting on Saturday. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was horrible to see that crash, but for Vinny it\u2019s been uplifting to experience the goodwill of so many. One of Vinny\u2019s sponsors, Lance Sutherland, got in touch with Greg Murphy [four-time winner of the Bathurst 1000] and he reached out by phone. <\/p>\n
\u201cLindisfarne staff are sending Vinny everything he needs to keep up to date with schoolwork, and his mates are saying, \u2018We\u2019re here to help\u2019. He\u2019s in a great frame of mind.\u201d <\/p>\n
Vinny said he was \u201cvery lucky\u201d on Saturday. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt could have been much worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked how he felt about getting back into a race car, he said: \u201cI\u2019m just more determined to win.\u201d <\/p>\n
And his preferred next drive? <\/p>\n
\u201cI like anything with speed. I\u2019ll probably try TQs and saloons and see what I like.\u201d <\/p>\n
He turns 16 on June 27, just over halfway through his forecast recovery time. <\/p>\n
Vinny and his father want to thank Gisborne Speedway Club and Meeanee Speedway for their support. The presidents of both organisations reached out to let the family know Vinny was in their thoughts. <\/p>\n
Dylan MacGregor and his wife Beth, meanwhile, have a speedway-driver-in-waiting at home. <\/p>\n
Five-year-old Maverick is Vinny\u2019s biggest fan and \u201cmain mechanic\u201d in his pit crew.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe St John Ambulance people there were so good, and at the hospital that night Vinny had a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[26985,13912,3549,127,3528,4527,60683,35964,71,12506,12254,16507,218653,111,139,69,6848,9527,1881,34381,37525,213,5163,1361,131927,8238,303,218652,4518,1316,9184,6438],"class_list":["post-426405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-bones","tag-broken","tag-crash","tag-despite","tag-doctors","tag-doesnt","tag-eternity","tag-feels","tag-from","tag-gisborne","tag-include","tag-lucky","tag-macgregor","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-orders","tag-programme","tag-recovery","tag-seems","tag-speedway","tag-sports","tag-teen","tag-that","tag-twelve","tag-under","tag-very","tag-vinny","tag-weeks","tag-when","tag-yet","tag-youre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}