“Priceless”
by Jim Evans Jr.
Friday, June 12, 2009 Big Diamond Raceway, during it’s regular Friday night racing event invited the enduro cars to come up and put on an exhibition to help promote the enduro racing the following Sunday. Eager to participate, Jamie Naftzinger, driver of the #3 car painted with the scheme of the John Deere company colors in mind, and his father Mark brought not one, but two cars up to the track to showcase their enduro cars and get some track time on the recently completed second car for which Mark intends to run at New Egypt Speedway this season. The event went very well with popular Auburn driver Brad Krause taking the checkers in their abbreviated 15 lap event.
Mark Naftzinger in tech at Big Diamond Raceway taken Sunday, June 14th.
The father and son team experienced some issues during the race with the one car and Mark instructed the crew not to load the car right away. When it came time to load up the car, Mark noticed another issue and said about getting his welding jacket. As he turned to do so, the car started rolling off the trailer into the path of a number of crew members from Mike Radocha’s roadrunner team. Mark, thinking only of saving a lot of people from getting hurt jumped in the path of their car coming off the trailer. Chuck Detweiler who was parked near the Naftzinger’s and exhibited his #666 Chevy Caprice as well this evening jumped in to help out by trying to grab the steering wheel and turn the car out of danger… the steering wheel had already been removed so he jumped in and tried to stop the car as well. Chuck dove out of the way in the nick of time while Mark got pinned between the #3 car and Mike Radocha’s #454 roadrunner falling to the ground as the car came to a stop.
In severe pain, Mark was told to stay laying on the ground as the ambulance, already parked at the track at the entrance to pit road, came over to attend to him. He was taken to the former Good Samaritan Hospital (now Schuylkill Medical Center East Norwegian) treated and then sent down to Lehigh Valley Medical Center in Allentown for further treatment. As rumors fly, the word was almost certain to be at least one broken leg, perhaps two. These were rumors as Mark suffered from crushed muscles in at least one leg.
While in the hospital, in typical Mark Naftzinger fashion as they examined his legs, still in agonizing pain he showed the staff where he was experiencing the pain so they no longer had to use him as a pin cushion to determine the location of his injuries. He came to a point where he had a meeting of the minds with these individuals to which they finally gave into his requests.
Mark was released from the hospital on Saturday afternoon as determined by the doctors the only treatment that would work for him was exercise, using his legs to strengthen the crushed muscles. At 9am Sunday morning, Mark, the regular tech official, along with Harvey Ensminger, for Big Diamond Raceway’s Nutty Buddy Enduro series presented by Savage 61 Dodge and track welder Dan Drobnick, decided he was going to go to the race track for Sunday’s events. Before you know it, upon his arrival and being greeted by dozens of competitors and competitor’s family members, track officials, and of course myself, Mark was back doing what he does best… safety teching cars who were preparing to race in the Sunday event.
I asked Mark of the incident Friday evening and after recanting the series of events Mark said “If anybody would have gotten hurt that would have been the end of my career in racing, I would have had a hard time living with it”. He continued by saying, “I know what I did was going to hurt and may not have been the smartest thing I’ve ever done but to save those crew members I’d do it again in a heartbeat”. I’ve personally known Mark (to talk to) for many years now and this is true to his character and personality, if you’ve ever gotten to know Mark Naftzinger as I have in the past two seasons working with the enduro class you will learn quickly he’s all about the safety and well being of those around him and cares deeply about people in general. Mark summed up it up this way, “all of the support of my family these past few days, and the support of the racing community is ‘priceless’”. “Thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts since Friday night, they’re greatly appreciated”.
Mark, from the bottom of my heart, you’re a great man who I enjoy rubbing elbows with in the tech line each time out and to think of a day without you in the pits would be a day I really wouldn’t want to experience. You, your brother, and the rest of your family have contributed so much to enduro racing at Big Diamond Raceway but to know you, my friend is an honor and a privilege I would not want to loose, for even a day, for a very long time. I’m very happy you’re up and walking around, heck, without even much of a limp, and I’m sure the pain you’re in right now will subside with each passing day.
(Pictured is the "3" of Jamie Naftzinger and also a photo of his Dad Mark Naftzinger)
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