KEY POINTS:
Freestyle motocross rider "Scary" Mary Perkins crashed off her bike and lay unconscious as teammates landed their motorcycles only centimetres from her.
Horrified family and fans, including Ms Perkins' parents from Hastings, watched as she crashed on landing after a jump went wrong on Saturday night in Tauranga.
One rider was in the air when the accident happened. Unable to see over the ramp, he had only seconds to find a safe passage between the rider and her bike to avoid a collision.
Another rider also skirted the narrow gap of about 30cm.
Ms Perkins was then carried away on a stretcher wearing a neck brace. She was unconscious for about 15 minutes.
The first and so far only female member of the internationally-known Crusty Demons, Ms Perkins said yesterday she felt "pretty gross".
Speaking from her Waikato Hospital bed, she said she had a sore ankle but no broken bones.
She could not remember much of what happened during one of the last jumps of the show, during the last performance of the Kiwi Carnage Tour.
"The last thing I remember is going for the jump. Then nothing really.
"Everything was going well as far as I knew."
Ms Perkins has previously said pain "lets you know you're alive" during the risky shows.
"You need luck but it's the nature of the sport that you'll end up hurt at some stage. You always rely on the adrenalin to kick in and the pain goes away."
The 24-year-old hoped to come home to Tauranga today or tomorrow to recuperate.
She is still planning to go to the United States in about six weeks, to perform as a freestyle motocross rider.
Her boyfriend of four months, Joel Wanhill, was watching the show when the weekend accident happened.
"Something must have gone wrong in the run-up and she just gave it a bit too much," he said.
Mr Wanhill said Ms Perkins' parents went to the hospital, worried but philosophical: "They've experienced it a bit before. It was quite bad and quite a hard fall but she's doing pretty good."
- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES