Posted on the
SheepHerder Fuel Altered Facebook page this morning:
Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers for our driver, Kyle and the Sheepherder team . Below is a message from Kyle. Please keep him in your prayers.
Well by now I’m sure all have seen the news. First and foremost, by the grace of God, I am alive. What a wild ride that was. I don’t recall much of the run so I’m not sure exactly what went wrong. What I do remember is seeing the wall and making impact and going upside down. Unfortunately the impact of the car upside down on the guardrail ripped the steering cross bar and steering wheel right off the car. This allowed my legs to come out of the car while the car slid on its lid on top of the guard rail. All I remember is this hurts and burns as the car was riding the top of the wall and I was waiting for ride to come to a stop. Once the car stopped, I was pinned upside down with the weight of the car trapping my legs between the car and guardrail. Safety was there almost instantly as when the car came to a stop, I was greeted by safety safari. I explained that my body felt okay, no broken bones, no back pain or neck pain but that my legs were killing me with the weight of the car pinning them. I don’t know how many people it took, but they got the car turned over and went right to work getting me out. I cannot thank the Tucson Dragway staff, safety and paramedics enough for their quick thinking and quick work to get me out and safe. Secondly, I cannot thank Kevin Knowles and Bryan Kelley enough. Watching multiple videos they stopped on the return road and ran right to me to be by my side. Kevin did a phenomenal job keeping me calm and getting me/carrying me out of the car. Cannot thank him enough. To Jim Black, thank you for your knowledge and quick thinking to get me out and keep me safe. To my family and crew, Vince Generalao Jr, Craig Hammar, Dave Lee, John Landry, Mom and Dad, thank you for being by my side through the whole process and taking care of me. My girlfriend, my love, my future wife, Krista Suydam, for being there via FaceTime and dropping what she’s doing to get here to be with me and take care of me. I don’t know what I did to deserve such a great woman like you. I love you so much. To all the fans, sorry for the delay. But it was one hell of a show. To everyone who reached out via text and phone call and Facebook messenger, thank you so much. Your thoughts and prayers do not go unnoticed. To Matt Miller, thank you for your continued prayers and for coming to the hospital late last night to pray with me before surgery. We all appreciate all the work you do. Lastly, to my owner, my friend, my other father figure, John Aleman, I’m so sorry that I have destroyed something you’ve had your whole life. I know what this car meant to you and your family. I told you long ago that I’d never blow it up or wad it up. I’m sorry I couldn’t keep that promise to you.
Now for the update, after getting to the trauma center in Tucson, the staff went right to work. Taking X-rays and scans to see the extent of the damage. Unfortunately it will be a long long road of recovery. The sliding of my legs on top of the guardrail caused deep lacerations and sever burns to my legs. With a lacerations about 8 inches long by 4 inches wide and a few inches deep, it will take multiple surgeries and skin graphs to be someone whole and normal again. My left leg looks as if I was bitten by a shark as there is a large chunk missing. But all of my safety equipment did its job and I’m alive to tell the story. After several hours last night I finally went in for my first of many surgeries around 11pm. After a few hours I was out in recovery with my left leg bandaged up. Good news, I still have my legs and toes. It’s going to be a long recovery and I’m not sure what the future holds. At this time, we’ll take it one day at a time and see what happens.
Thank you again to everyone for their thoughts and prayers.
