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Our Take
So good in fact that when his life seemed dismal and all hope was gone, the love of the game gave him with a reason to live. Mike is not depressed, mentally ill or tormented by substance abuse. He’s physically handicapped. It wasn’t always that way. Up until eight years ago he had no problems stopping by Hooters at the conclusion of a sixty-hour work week at Fed-Ex or making it to a concert when his schedule permitted. After all, Eddie Van Halen’s house was one of his regular stops during the work week. Got to support the customers, right? As much as Mike loved drag racing, he even put the NHRA events in Pomona on the backburner to deliver packages, because they absolutely, positively had to be there overnight. Being a drag racer, he knew the importance of a deadline.
From this point on, you’ll understand why the racing community and the love of a few close friends have been the only things making his life somewhat bearable. He’ll admit that hope is all that has kept him alive at times. He has flat-lined on more than one occasion from related conditions since the accident. As a member of the human race, it ought to piss you off when you realize what he’s had to go through. It ought to make you think twice before walking around the track with the Rock of Gibraltar on your shoulder because your car is two hundredths off. For Big Mike, a bad day at the races is better than a good day in life. a
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Mike is paralyzed from his navel down as the result of the machinations of company lawyers and insurance brokers. He didn’t start rehab until 2003 despite being injured in 1999. If he could have gotten the treatment he needed in time to repair discs that had turned to brittle bone fragments, he might be writing a story in this column about his various experiences at the drag strip, such as spilling race fuel on Roy Hill’s “britches” (Southern for trousers - editor) as the volatile school instructor described them. Mike might even write about guys like Leo “Porky” Gastellum or Frank Kranberger. He’s still a fan of the underdog and no one fits the role better these days.
As an example of how these people deal with fellow human beings, Mike had been provided with a special bed that conformed to his injury and made sleep at night and his time in an assisted living facility a little more bearable. When I said “had” I must note that this Life Plan Advisor recently decided that the bed was unnecessary despite the fact his physician had prescribed it for a period of 99 months with an automatic renewal. Getting the bed delivered took weeks. This time around the report flew though channels and by 8 a.m. the next day a rep from the insurance company called to let Mike to let him know that someone would be out to disassemble the bed. An hour later they were hard at work. Mike just sat and watched them take one of the few comforts he had left outside of his drag racing videos. Mike shrugs it off and says, “That’s how they operate.” Mike says that as he grimaces in pain from sleeping in a chair for two weeks. “How much lower can a person feel than when they take his bed?” He asked. “I was born in this country, worked in it, paid into the system and believed in it. When I needed it, I’m just a piece of trash. Let someone come in from a foreign country with their hand out, they get cash and food stamps and the works. I have $3200 in just prescriptions per month. Hey - it’s their system.” Mike doesn’t want a handout. He just wants the support of the system he supported for years. He wants simple things. like hotels to not give away his handicapped room when he booked one. Mike wouldn’t mind hotels to get more than one handicapped room out of the hundreds they have on site. Maybe three or four times a year Mike gets to escape the harsh reality of life and travel to an NHRA event, where he’s an invaluable asset to our staff. Even though Mike is confined to a wheelchair, he can find out the behind-the-scenes stories we are able to report. It’s a shame that he’s only physically able to make one, maybe two days in a national event. He saves every ounce of his energy for those days when he can escape to his first love. Mike was born to go to the drags. Having a father that worked for Shell Oil, he smiles when spinning a yarn about going to E-town when he was just four months old. As he grew older, his forays to the strip increased. I met Mike in 1991 while working as a senior editor for the now defunct Super Stock & Drag Illustrated magazine. This was the result of an article discussing how to compile a professional sponsorship portfolio. Somehow or another Mike, working as a part-time publicist for former IHRA Pro Stock racer Jerry Yeoman, contacted me and we quickly became friends. He became an excellent life coach for me during a particularly tough time in my life. During the latter part of the decade, when I had become so burned out on the sport and was ready to quit, Mike was always there offering support. He always told me that better days were ahead because it was drag racing. Drag racing comes through. When CompetitionPlus.com was a floundering dream in 1999, Mike stepped up to the plate to offer financial assistance to continue this unlikely fantasy. My first year as a full-timer in the drag racing industry was anything but easy but Mike wouldn’t let me quit. Maybe Mike’s optimism comes from those at the track. When we were at our media credential limit and couldn’t get Mike a ticket at Vegas, it was Evan Knoll who not only stepped up to the plate with a three-day pass, but also provided a Don Schumacher Racing hospitality pass. It was just as well because Mike’s wheelchair broke as the result of a charging malfunction. He spent hours fixing the disabled mount. “It’s the races, you’re supposed to thrash,” Mike said. As it turned out, Mike struck up a conversation with Schumacher, who is looking into a new charging system for his wheelchair. The one thing about the strip and the street close to his Santa Monica, Ca. residence… at the strip Mike knows that a lot of people care about him. Nothing could replace his smile as fledgling Funny Car Mike Ashley walked up to Big Mike and presented our hero with one of his limited diecasts. Ashley has always been impressed with Mike. How can one not be impressed with an individual who can recite verbatim your interviews from 1990? No-one can duplicate an Ashley or Tommy Mauney interview from the 1990 IHRA Spring Nationals better than Mike. No one can impersonate Roy Hill chewing me out better than Mike. I made the mistake of showing him the tape from my driving school experience and have regretted it ever since. Mike’s a giver. Always has been and always will be. When Kenny Koretsky suffered a broken coccyx (tailbone), it was Mike who sent his friend a gel seat to make sitting bearable. After all, who would know better? Just months ago Koretsky even offered to have his legal department try and help get Mike out of the system and into a bit of respectability. Working six to seven days a week and averaging 60 or more hours per week was the life Mike used to know. Now he spends that time in pain. It’s the things we take for granted. “Wait until you wake up in the middle of the night to realize you can’t control your bodily functions. That will be your wake up call,” Mike says. So many times I’ve hammered away at this computer realizing that it’s been a while since I called Mike. Sometimes I’m a terrible friend. But, then I realize, Big Mike is here with me. He’s in my heart and the soul of our staff. I’m here because of Mike. I don’t care how many of these Life Plan Advisors tell Mike he’s just another number in the system, he’ll always be the strength behind our success. Bette Midler wrote “The Wind Beneath My Wings” especially for Mike. He’s my hero and that of all who meet him. And if the insurance company says you have to be a number Mike, I have
the perfect one for you - #1.
What’s your take? Drop us a line at comppluseditor@aol.com.
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Then
a large crate fell. Mike found himself pinned under it until fellow employees
could move it. Those are the same employees and managers who have yet
to call since that October day in 1999.
He’s
dealt with every uncaring, self-serving idiot in the shark-infested waters
of HMOs and insurance. Mike has watched as his life was evaluated by a
representative of the insurance company whose title is Life Plan Advisor.
Basically this person decides how much a person’s life is worth
and how they can cut corners for the client.
© Competitionplus 2005
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