| August 13, 2009
Ronan racecar driver makes sure his paralyzed right arm doesn’t make him get left behind
Aaric Bryan
Valley Journal
The first time John “Lefty” Hendrickx sat behind the wheel of his racecar he felt at home; winning the first race he entered just confirmed the feeling.
The victory last summer, where Hendrickx beat the rest of the field using just his left arm, not only signified the start of the 40-year-old’s racing career, it also signified the end of a long and arduous journey back from a motorcycle accident nearly 20 years earlier.
In 1990, while Hendrickx was riding his motorcycle a drunk driver in a van pulled out in front of him. Before Hendrickx could react, he had broadsided the van going faster than 50 mph. The accident left Hendrickx in a coma for a month and in intensive care for three months.
When Hendrickx awoke from the coma, he awoke to the realization that his right arm was paralyzed. Hendrickx also awoke to the realization that things he took for granted, like walking and just standing up, wouldn’t be so easy now.
“I had to learn how to walk and how to get my balance back. I could be walking and just fall down,” Hendrickx said. “It took six months to a year just to get where I wouldn’t fall.”
It took about a year for Hendrickx to learn how to walk again, but it took a lot longer for him to come to terms that he was never going to use his right arm again.
“I was in depression for quite awhile,” Hendrickx said. Hendrickx still might be in the depression without his friends pushing him. “Good friends would tell me and keep on me about ‘come on try this, we know you can do this.’”
One of the things Hendrickx’s friends told him to try was racing. Hendrickx has always loved speed. Growing up he would spend most his weekends drag racing his Chargers or Duster he had at the time on the backstreets in the valley.
“Growing up, I always wanted to do some racing. I’ve raced cars, trucks, motorcycles, and snowmobiles, but it was always on back roads or private roads,” Hendrickx said.
During the battle in accepting his injury, the thought that someday he would be racing cars at the speedway didn’t seem possible for Hendrickx. The dream of racing at the speedway may have been deeply buried for Hendrickx during this time, but it was never completely gone.
“It was still there in me that I wanted to do it, but I didn’t think I could,” Hendrickx said.
While Hendrickx may have competed in a lot of racing in his youth, it wasn’t until last summer, when he convinced Ronan’s Jimmy Jax to let him borrow his modified four-cylinder open-wheel car in a trophy dash at the Mission Valley Speedway, that Hendrickx competed in his first legal race.
Hendrickx won the race, which is surprising when he looks back at it now.
“I was pretty slow, I was slow out there,” Hendrickx said while laughing.
No matter how fast or how slow Hendrickx went in his first race, he was hooked. Hendrickx said he immediately horse-traded Jax for the car, trading a
carport for the modified car.
“One man’s junk is another man’s treasure,”
With the 4-cylinder 2.3-liter engines, Hendrickx said the mod-4s can reach speeds around 80mph on the straightaways and go around the corners at about 60 mph. For Hendrickx there is nothing like when he and his pitman T.J. Duran have his car, the number 8, set up right,
Hendrickx just completed his 13th race of the 18-race season, winning the trophy dash and placing second in the 25-lap Jake Carpentier Memorial Race last Saturday. He said that driving with one arm is a little difficult, but he has gotten use to it over the season. Hendrickx has placed at least second in all his races.
“Two hands are always better than one, but basically, I find out where I want to hold the wheel and that’s where I hold it all night,” Hendrickx said, adding that he also has to use his left arm to shift. “When I’m coming around the corner and I see the green flag drop, that’s basically when I put it in what I call left gear (third gear) and I just leave it there all race.”
Through the 13 races so far, Hendrickx has built up quite the fan club at the speedway, but none bigger than his two sons, Matthew Bigcrane, 13 and Jimmy Hendrickx, 10. The single-father said it’s important that his kids see him doing something he loves,
“It’s not just the racing...I like to teach them and show them different things they can try out in life. My son Jimmy is a war dancer. A good war dancer, a champion to me,” Hendrickx said.
Hendricks isn’t sure his sons will follow him into racing, but he’s leaving the door open for them.
“Right now, I know they’ll be turning wrenches for me. They like to play with my tools,” Hendrickx said.
While a lot of beginning racers dream of racing in bigger venues, Hendrickx is perfectly content spending the rest of his days circling his home track.
When asked what his favorite thing was about his short racing career, Hendrickx was quick to answer.
“Seat time, the more seat time I get the quicker I’m getting,” Hendrickx said.
The seat time wouldn’t be possible without the support of his sponsors.
“It’s all about the sponsors, when it comes to racing. This wouldn’t be happening if I didn’t have sponsors,” Hendrickx said. |
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