Racer Vincent Haskovec, a 31-year-old Czech immigrant who settled in Lake Elsinore, California, suffered spinal injuries and was paralyzed from the chest down when he crashed and hit a wall during an AMA Formula Xtreme motorcycle road race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California on May 14. After spending four days in a local trauma center where he underwent surgery to stabilize his spine, Haskovec was transferred to Santa Clara Medical Center in San Jose, California. Last week he was released from ICU to begin rehabilitation. Haskovec’s medical bills are fast approaching $500,000, of which 70% is covered by his medical insurance. He faces a long rehabilitation and will have to find a new way to make a living, since he worked in construction before he became a professional racer. The team he rode for, Lake Elsinore-based Team Hammer, Inc., racing as M4 EMGO Suzuki, has continued to pay Haskovec but his contract expires at the end of this season. Fundraising efforts are being coordinated by the Wegman Benefit Fund, a 501(3) c non-profit dedicated to helping injured road racers, and an online auction of racing gear and memorabilia donated by racers and people in the motorcycle industry appears at ~http://www.rpmcolorado.com/auction.asp~ . Vincent can be contacted via e-mail, [email protected] and updates on his condition can be seen at www.teamhammer.com . To bring people up to date on Vincent’s current status, we asked Vincent how he was doing. Q: What’s going on? Vincent: First I want to thank everybody who sent me an e-mail or a letter. I can’t believe it, how many people are wishing me well and are trying to help me. It’s amazing, man, and even though I can’t understand why this happened to me I really appreciate that so many people contacted me. I always tried to be nice to people and now they are being so nice to me it’s unreal. In the hospital, I’m now on a different level. On Monday the 11th I made it into the section that I was heading for. That’s why I came here to San Jose. I got out of there and now I’m in the rehab center on the first floor and those people in the rehab center are really cool. It’s the first people in the hospital that give me some hope. Q: You got to sit up for the first time, when did that happen? Vincent: That happened on the Friday before the 11th, so that was like the eighth. Over that weekend I got to sit up. Now I can do therapy and be in the wheelchair. Q: So the more time you spend in the chair the better it is? Vincent: Exactly, because the circulation and the movement is very important. Q: How’s your left arm doing? Vincent: That’s slowing me down on the progress here because it can move but it’s not as strong. I can do the things, but for a very short time. Q: Overall, now that you are up and in your chair and starting rehab, how do you feel about all that stuff? Vincent: It’s much better because I can go out and see people so I’m really happy. I can be in the chair at least and go around. I’m in the chair and I have to have like four hours of rehab through the day, but I have rest in between those hours. Q: How’s your overall feeling so far? Vincent: I’m pretty happy to make that move and finally do some activity. I’m not laying in bed all the time, laying on my side. Q: What do they have you doing for your activities? Vincent: We’re doing weights. I do normally that for one hour. Another hour they try to teach you about regular life; like you going in the shower, how you’re going to transfer yourself to the bath, how you’re going around the kitchen, how you’re going to open the door. All the basic stuff, you know? Another hour is physical therapy, they are teaching me about the wheelchair. And they are teaching me how to get up myself from the chair. And the last hour is going around a course in the wheelchair. This week they are going to have a bus with a ramp and on next Sunday they are going to take us to Santa Cruz. We can hang out, be outside, eat, and other stuff. Q: Are you looking forward to that? Vincent: Yeah, that will be the first time that I am going to be out of the hospital.