Ray Paprota

Home
Up
My Background
The Accident
Events 2004
Andy Carpenter
My Thanks
Photo's & Reports
Alex Zanardi
Humour
Marshalling
Links
Guestbook
Contact Details
Website Awards

If you enjoyed this site, please click on logo above to register vote.

Visitors since

4th March 2002

FastCounter by bCentral

During December 2002, I was contacted by an American paraplegic driver who had fought the system and made his way as a driver to the heady heights of NASCAR sanctioned racing, and I was amazed to learn what he had achieved given the background of his disability. This pictures below show some of the vehicles he has driven, adapted for use by hand control, and as you can see he doesn't hold back on the horsepower!!!!!

Unfortunately, Ray got involved in a fatal track accident at Daytona in February 2004, and much sensationalism was made of Ray by the press and media, telling you all about his disabilities as a headline to the story. An example of this was:-

Daytona Beach, Fla. — A worker at Daytona International Speedway was struck and killed by a paraplegic driver going more than 100 miles an hour during a race for compact cars Sunday.

The worker, 44-year-old Roy H. Weaver III, was standing in the middle of the track picking up debris during a caution period when he was hit by a car driven by Ray Paprota of Birmingham, Ala., track spokesman David Talley said.

Paprota, who doesn't have use of his legs and drives a car equipped with hand controls, was trying to catch up the main pack of cars after a two-car crash at the opposite end of the track brought out a yellow flag. Weaver was struck in the second turn on the 2 1/2-mile trioval.

"The worker was standing right in the middle of the track when he hit him," said Jeff Tillman, who was behind Paprota when the fatal accident occurred. "It flipped him over the car."

Several drivers said Weaver's body already was covered by a tarp as they continued to circle the track under a yellow flag. Eventually, the IPOWERacing 150 was red-flagged for about 1 1/2 hours, finally running to the finish under the lights after police investigated the scene and took pictures of Paprota's car in the garage.

Paprota was loaded into a wheelchair-accessible van and left the track without commenting to reporters. "I'm sorry," he said. "I can't say anything."

Weaver was the supervisor of track crew. He had been with the speedway for seven years.

But a day later, the police and officials all came out and publicly stated that his disability did not contribute to the accident in any way whatsoever. But did the majority print any form of retraction over the link between the accident and Ray's disability have no part? Of course not, as it doesn't sell newspapers! So the majority of the public will have seen the original headlines, instantly connected two and two together and are left with the wrong conclusion.

I have since written to Ray, telling him not to stop his racing because of this, but to keep going and show just what you CAN achieve.

And I have found the following article on the net from www.studioqb.com, which perfectly answers my criticisms of the distortion of the facts.

Guest Columnist
Dash Series driver's disability irrelevant to incident 02-09-04 9:10:00 PM ET

Editor's note: My good friend Kari Ratliff sends in this commentary on the incident at Daytona International Speedway this past Sunday and the coverage of the event that is represented by this report by Associated Press.

Sunday’s death of a track worker at Daytona International Speedway was shocking.

But it wasn’t anywhere near as shocking as the blatant insensitivity and unnecessary questions being raised in the national news media with regard to Ray Paprota’s disability.

The fact that Paprota, the driver whose car struck the track worker during the IPOWERacing Dash Series 150, is a paraplegic is irrelevant in these circumstances. No driver – able bodied or not – would have been able to avoid the man who had come out onto the racing surface to retrieve debris during a caution flag.

Yet information about his disability appeared in or near the lead and sometimes even the headline of every news story I have read about the incident.

What happened Sunday was a miscommunication with a tragic ending. Regardless of who failed to communicate – Paprota’s spotter or race officials and safety crews – disability was clearly not a factor in the accident.

He was merely following normal race protocol, which is to try to catch up to the lead line of cars. It could have happened to anyone. It could have happened in the Daytona 500. The driver in question could be Matt Kenseth or Dale Earnhardt Jr.

But if that were the case, would the media be questioning Kenseth’s or Earnhardt’s ability to drive a race car? Probably not.

So why are people questioning Paprota’s driving abilities? Why is no one asking why such an experienced track worker stepped onto the track without knowing for sure he was in the clear?

Quotes in the Associated Press wire story basically implied that some race officials doubted whether or not Paprota should have ever been cleared to drive. Yet all of these doubts about his skill as a driver have come to the forefront because of one incident – an incident that, had it happened to anybody else, probably would have never raised the same questions.

Were the driver in question someone else, I strongly suspect the event would be shrugged off as an “unfortunate incident.” Tears would be shed, and life – and racing – would move on.

But because the driver involved is not your average NASCAR driver, people are now unfairly doubting whether or not he should even be allowed to drive in the series.

This event had absolutely nothing to do with Paprota’s disability, which was not acquired as a result of a racing incident, yet that disability played a starring role in nearly every news article. But there was really no reason to mention it at all.

There are many other questions needing answers, and none of them have anything to do with Ray Paprota’s ability to safely pilot a stock car. If he was incapable of handling the car safely and effectively, he would not have been cleared to run.

I look forward to seeing Ray Paprota compete in future NASCAR events and prove the nay-sayers wrong. He’s got a fan in me.

Ray, you are one brave guy, and hopefully one day I will get the chance to meet you and witness first hand your achievements on the track.