Drag racing as a therapy for PTSD

I know Mr. Jeff Burk from years ago at Pomona with our friends Dave & Sky Wallace. My name is Roger Rochon, and, along with my very good friend Ron "Trash" Haley -- both of us combat vets from the Viet Nam conflict -- have discovered how therapeutic nitro racing can be for some vets with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

I've been involved with drag racing since 1963 except during my tour in Viet Nam and some time afterwards. I've been a car builder, owner, driver and crew chief, also a freelance photographer. It never dawned on me that all of it was therapeutic to a certain extent until after Trash, his wife Sheri, and myself were at the Finals at Pomona 2010. After the first pair of Funny Cars went down the track, Trash told me it was a life-changing experience. That's when we discovered it was therapeutic. I just knew I always felt better before, during, and after a race, win or lose.

On Saturday, Feb. 11, at Pomona, we found out how therapeutic it is for two vets that were recommended by our VA psychiatrist to take to the race. So far it has helped the two of us a great amount dealing with parts of PTSD. We feel it can be of great use dealing with this problem in our young vets with combat backgrounds. The adrenaline and emotional rush you get from nitro cars going by in close proximity is as close to the hard combat feeling as either one of us has had since the war. Where we sat at half-track was great for feeling the thunder of fuel.

Because we feel it worked so well I hope the VA will take a serious look at it for future use with vets. Many thanks to Michael Padian of NHRA for the tickets to the race. Greatly appreciated.  Also thanks to Dr. Jared Shoemaker, our psychiatrist at the VA, for all his help and guidance, and Chris Demke of the Maddern Racing Peen-Rite alcohol dragster team for their help with this. (Congratulations to Chris and the team on their great WIN at the Winternationals!) Without everybody’s help we couldn't do it.

Any vets out there want to get in touch with me they can at roger_rochon@sbcglobal.net and I'll give you all the information about our program.

Roger Rochon
Castaic, California