Ken Sypolt of Pro Pit Needs Our Help

[CaboCris]

RDC Members,

I would like to start a thread for a few reasons. Ken Sypolt needs our help and after so many years of helping others in so many ways... I'm hoping we can give him something back. Racing Ron Stobaugh gave a quick update of Ken's situation that occurred at the Xtreme Outlaws Vorra 250 outside Reno. In a nutshell, Ken was injured while working for Pro Pit over the weekend. His injuries are rather extensive and while the long term prognosis is good... in the short term (3 to 6 months) work and cash flow are a problem.

Ken has been around the desert community since the beginning. His father Jack Sypolt owns Pro Pit and has been involved in one way or another since the first Baja 1000. Ken has worked on buggies for Ivan Stewart back in the early, early days, crew chief for Roger Mears, built numerous buggies, trophy trucks... spent hours prepping Pro Trucks and race vehicles for many, many people. My point in mentioning all this is... we all know people who give so much to this sport and every once in a while they need our help.

This is one of those times.

The plan is to help keep his business going thru his recuperation, help with medical bills, keep food on the table and unfortunately, he was about to move and now needs help with that. Ken lives in Folsom (outside Sacramento) and if you are able to help in any way... be it financial, moving, whatever... it would be greatly appreciated. If you have any questions, please contact me here on RDC or call my cell phone 916.768.5566.

We hope to get a bank account, pay pal and all that going for him... more on that as we get it going. If there are any other ideas or offers... please throw it out there.

One last thing... rather than dwell on the how's or why's of what happened... please take this thread and tell your best story or thought about either Ken, Pro Pit or some story involving in any way to Ken & Jack. They will both be reading this at some point and it's better to have a few laughs and remember the good about our sport. Accidents happen and hopefully something good will come from all this.

BTW, Ken is known for both his generocity and his outspoken views, attitudes etc... so feel free to tell it how it is... both Ken & Jack are unique personalities... they will enjoy whatever you post.

Cris Steller
cabocris@yahoo.com
916.768.5566

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[3B Racing]

Got to see Ken today while he checked in at his business for a short while. His spirits are up and we are all very glad that the injuries aren't worse but it will be a slow and pretty painful recovery. For those of you that don't know his business Prism Wraps; he is the life blood that runs it, so not having good use of both hands is going to severly hut the business in the short term. Cris you said it right, Ken is one of those guys who will pull an all nighter to help a guy out (has many a time stayed late and fished projects for my business and stayed late at the shop to help with my own personal projects) as well as being the first to step up and offer to give a hand or donate where he can for different events and fundraisers.

The 3B Racing crew is already on notice for the moving project with an enclossed trailer and many helping hands to get the job done.

Sam
3B Racing
3bracing@gmail.com

[jacobflyin]

Cris, I am so glad to see this up I was hoping some one would be doing this, I also like Sam have been talking with Ken today, at his shop and we are coming up with a plan to keep the doors open at the shop but no one will be able to do the quality installs as fast as Ken can so the volume of what can be done is going to suffer.

This man has all ways got things done for me and my business even if he had to stay late or come in early ( and he does not like to wake up early so that's a big deal ) He has given me so much of his time and extreme wealth of knowledge on my BAJA project and I know he did the same for Sam's projects.

Thank you Cris for getting the thread going.

O by the way every time some one walked in the shop today they said what the hell happened, Ken gave them a thumbs up and said lets go to the water park ( it's more of a hand up because it's in a cast)

[Dave Simpson]

Ken is a great guy. We go way back. I will send what we can from the No Bad Days Racing guys. Get well soon buddy!

[CaboCris]

For those locally (Sacramento)... we are looking to get the bulk of Ken's house moved tomorrow June 26th (Saturday) starting around 10... if you have questions or can help, please contact me or post here.

Thanks again for all those who have called or helped in some way.

Cris

[Racing Ron]

For those locally (Sacramento)... we are looking to get the bulk of Ken's house moved tomorrow June 26th (Saturday) starting around 10... if you have questions or can help, please contact me or post here.

Thanks again for all those who have called or helped in some way.

Cris

Cris,

Good on you and everyone pitching in. I've got 3 guys and a BIG trailer on the way at 10am!

Ron

[CaboCris]

Here's the latest after a day of moving. Ken & Julie can now breath a bit easier... we had so much fantastic help that it was absolutely amazing. I will post a few photos of the "crew" that showed up (As soon as I figure out how), but it's important to say Thank YOU now...

So... First off... Racing Ron & Super Understanding & Supportive Tracie... your brother Dave Hall showed up with a crew of the hardest working guys from Dixon and just tore it up. You both would have been proud... Huge Thank you for arranging for those guys to show up. They had their trailer and truck loaded up before I was able to even show up... almost felt guilty. Almost.

We had friends from the Pirate Board (Class Ultra 4) Bill Kreitzel & Co-Dog Brian Haycock come and dive in as well. Between gas lines and electrical connections on washers & dryers... much appreciated. They are true grass roots racers out of the Delta Construction Company here in Sacramento... good friends that would do anything for you.

The friends from Rancho cranked it on... Thank you to Jacob Henline, Sam Johnson... great friends who fit right in.

Then there was the Middlegate crowd... Wow... for old desert guys with enough injuries themselves to fill an ER... they still got it all done. Mr Mike Russell, Mr Peter Couperous, Mr Jimmy D, Mr Tommy Mathews, Keith Ison... Lots of history with this group.




Big Thanks also for the phone calls... please feel free to call Ken if you have the number.... get a hold of me if you don't.

Cris



p.s. another quick Thank You to Roger Norman... appreciate the phone calls and thoughts...

[BobBower]

Chris,
I want to pitch in and help.
Please post the information about the PayPal account, or the bank account, or an address I can use to send help to Ken. I am not fussy about where, just give me the information about where to send some help.

Ken may not be one of the people who are widely known in our sport, but he is definitely one guy I want to support. Heck, maybe he is widely known, I don't know. Regardless, here is what he is to Bob Bower...

He is a person I have respect for. A good man. Ken is a positive influence on the people around him. A realist. An honest man. Fair and interested in getting it right. He works. Hard. Always has, and if we can help him bridge this little problem he will be back to working his way. That way is 110% to help his customers, friends, and family. He's not a taker. He's one of those guys who just keeps figuring out ways to make things better. Working in the pits with the crew at Pro Pit was clearly a joy and a passion. I watched him all day at that pit jumping in to change a tire, change a fan belt, pour power steering fluid, and dump fuel. The thing is, he was a great pit worker because he understood he was one of many. A part of the team. Not the star. The race car and the people inside were the stars to Ken. I reckon the same sentiment holds for all the Pro Pit guys and gals. I'll tell ya... for a guy like me it was wonderful to be there in that pit that day to see how committed they all were to excellent service and first line safety. Kenny was one of them.

Then within a 20 second period things changed. Permanently. No reset button. No reboot. No do overs. Wow. Horror. Screams. Humans doing unscheduled aerobatics. Then... just dust. And through the dust a form in a black t-shirt and blue jeans is in a heap over there. At first one doesn't even know who it is. Your mind is doing it's best to process all the images and sounds that are counter to good sense, and because of that they don't add up. Next you are there at the form in the dirt. You don't hear the hollering, or the race cars sliding through the turn at high revs. All you can hear is the gurgling of an unconscious body with it's face in the dirt struggling to take air in through the flow of blood coming out of the face. He is the last to know what has happened. And, he will be the last to heal and the first to suffer the ramifications.

A guy who always thinks about how to help others is now a guy who could use a little positive attention. He's in the pits. And, to coin a phrase, it's the pits. I ask you to consider how you might toss your straw on the pile. Can you send him some work? A helmet? A race car? A work truck? Could you send him the equivalent of a half a dozen downloads on iTunes? Bower is asking you to give it some thought. Those here on RDC who know me know I don't jump on causes. For those who don't know me I'd ask that you stop for a second and give some thought to paying some karma forward.

Please help Ken Sypolt get through this tough situation.

Thank you.
Bob Bower

[JRod]

Cris,

I will be e-mailing you today with the request for assistance from Fast-Aid. At first glance, this looks EXACTLY like the situation for which we started Fast-Aid. We are very grateful to have received some generous donations to have money on hand for immediate dispersal to help Ken and his family with some of their bills.

Jared
President
www.Fast-Aid.org

[JRod]

On a sidenote, If you would like to make a donation to fast-aid, it is tax-deductible.

If you make a donation specifically to the "Injured Racer" fund, 100% of it will go to the injured racer fund and none to the adminstration costs of running the organization and it is still tax deductible.... Currently, the majority of all donations go back to helping racers anyway, but every little bit helps keep this non-profit organization run by racers/crews for racers/crews going....