I do not see anything wrong with what you did in this situation. You and your hog mate were, as a team, trying to simultaneously get back to racing and defending yourselves....nothing wrong with that. It's no different than getting hung up on a rock and your driver having to back out of a tight jam, and while he does you as the gunner should try to keep your hog alive. Were this could have gone wrong is if you as a gunner had no one to help you get unstuck (because you driver dies or whatever) and you stayed in the gunner seat firing while in no immediate danger.