quadzillaracer
New member
Well as the thread title says, just like that it looks like my racing days are over at 32-years old.
I have been going to a back specialist for sometime now over the past 6-months with complications of losing feeling in my feet and fingers along with difficulty walking. This lead to a fullbody MRI to learn what was causing this. In many cases it is a buldged disc in the back, which they can actually trim and re-seal. My MRI came back worse; I was told that my L3, L4, and L5 disc were completely de-generated meaning "dead" and driedout. The worse part is my L5 disc actually has started splitting and a larger piece is sticking into my nerves around spine. Being that I'm only 32 the surgeon is not comfortable fusing (3) of my disc at this point as it will only cause a chain reaction in the next 5-years of fusing each additional disc above.
13-years of wrestling around 400 pound barrels of x-ray film up and down staircases, and then driving truck up and down the road has left my back abused and trashed. This has lead up to the big dropkick from the surgeon... knowing of my sled racing, I was informed that if the worse case scenario would unfortunately happen and I came off my sled at 170 mph that my days of walking would most certainly be done (not that it couldn't happen with a healthy back), but my chances of "walking" away are grim at best. I have an 8 and 11-year old at home and a wife who has been supportive for years, they must come first.
I have enjoyed snowmobile racing for years and made some incredible friends and memories. As I've been told by many in the business, I was always the "young guy" that was ahead of my time with my concept ideas and creations. I have been blessed and fortunate to set (3) World Speed Records with NSSR and be recognized for the World's Most Powerful Snowmobile Engine @ DynoTech Research from 2009-2011. I've met almost every goal that I have set out to achieve in snowmobiling and I'm very Thankful for all of it.
I still plan on taking the "Compound Turbo" setup again out to DynoTech Research in the future, as building and tuning has always been more fun than actual racing.
The snowmobile racing game has changed in the last 3-years. We use to race against guys like Simons CPR, OSP, Jannetty Racing, D&D Racing, and ect. These were people that built, designed, and tuned their own sleds... and it was fun competing. Now there are so many guys in the sport that have "big checkbooks and little brains". They drop $50K-60K like nothing to be fast and can't turn a wrench or pay to have the tuner at each race. I told myself long ago that when this happened I would be done, the challenge is gone... so it looks like this timing could be ok.
I guess it will be cool to have my sled sitting in my office to look at each day and think of the good 'ole days. So with that, a huge Thank you to all you vmax4.com guys that have supported me over the past years, the keyboard racing we had, and ect... it was fun. I'll still be on here, Vmax-4's have been in my blood since I was only 11-years old and always will be!
Take care,
Justin
I have been going to a back specialist for sometime now over the past 6-months with complications of losing feeling in my feet and fingers along with difficulty walking. This lead to a fullbody MRI to learn what was causing this. In many cases it is a buldged disc in the back, which they can actually trim and re-seal. My MRI came back worse; I was told that my L3, L4, and L5 disc were completely de-generated meaning "dead" and driedout. The worse part is my L5 disc actually has started splitting and a larger piece is sticking into my nerves around spine. Being that I'm only 32 the surgeon is not comfortable fusing (3) of my disc at this point as it will only cause a chain reaction in the next 5-years of fusing each additional disc above.
13-years of wrestling around 400 pound barrels of x-ray film up and down staircases, and then driving truck up and down the road has left my back abused and trashed. This has lead up to the big dropkick from the surgeon... knowing of my sled racing, I was informed that if the worse case scenario would unfortunately happen and I came off my sled at 170 mph that my days of walking would most certainly be done (not that it couldn't happen with a healthy back), but my chances of "walking" away are grim at best. I have an 8 and 11-year old at home and a wife who has been supportive for years, they must come first.
I have enjoyed snowmobile racing for years and made some incredible friends and memories. As I've been told by many in the business, I was always the "young guy" that was ahead of my time with my concept ideas and creations. I have been blessed and fortunate to set (3) World Speed Records with NSSR and be recognized for the World's Most Powerful Snowmobile Engine @ DynoTech Research from 2009-2011. I've met almost every goal that I have set out to achieve in snowmobiling and I'm very Thankful for all of it.
I still plan on taking the "Compound Turbo" setup again out to DynoTech Research in the future, as building and tuning has always been more fun than actual racing.
The snowmobile racing game has changed in the last 3-years. We use to race against guys like Simons CPR, OSP, Jannetty Racing, D&D Racing, and ect. These were people that built, designed, and tuned their own sleds... and it was fun competing. Now there are so many guys in the sport that have "big checkbooks and little brains". They drop $50K-60K like nothing to be fast and can't turn a wrench or pay to have the tuner at each race. I told myself long ago that when this happened I would be done, the challenge is gone... so it looks like this timing could be ok.
I guess it will be cool to have my sled sitting in my office to look at each day and think of the good 'ole days. So with that, a huge Thank you to all you vmax4.com guys that have supported me over the past years, the keyboard racing we had, and ect... it was fun. I'll still be on here, Vmax-4's have been in my blood since I was only 11-years old and always will be!
Take care,
Justin
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