Name: Jon Winker
Location: Green Bay, Wisconsin
Jon starting racing karts in middle school competitively. In high school, he built his first car for the track, a 1982 Ford Mustang. After graduating high school, he joined the ARMY as an Infantryman. Jon deployed to Iraq in 2009 and shortly before his tour was complete he was injured when a MRAP (Mine Resistant Armor Protected) armored truck weighing over 54,000 lbs struck him and drove over his left leg. He was medevac’d and his leg was salvaged. After several surgeries and over 18 months of recovery Jon had very limited mobility and extreme pain. He required a cane to walk and large amounts of narcotics to get through the day. He was ultimate medically retired from the Army in 2011 after being found not medically fit for duty per the ARMY Physical Evaluation Board.
Jon returned home to WI and took up a new career in information technology. He found he could no longer do many of the activities he did before his injuries. He could no longer run, hike, play soccer or paintball. He did find one thing he could do, drive! He starting building a new car a, 2002 ROUSH Mustang. He started doing open track events and learned how to become a better driver. When Jon was on the track he did not have a disability. Racing offers Jon the ability to race against able-bodied drivers on a totally level playing field, something that no other sport can offer.
In 2013 Jon’s pain was increasing and it was getting difficult for him to even perform daily functions. Jon was still doing physical therapy working pain management doctors to control his daily pain. Nothing was working, and Jon was not living the quality of life he wanted. He was presented the option for another surgery or amputation of his left leg below the knee. The surgery would require a long recovery and even if successful, would not guarantee a reduction in pain. The amputation had a better likelihood of pain reduction but had obvious drawbacks. Jon opted to have his left leg amputated in October of 2013.
The amputation was successful. Within two months Jon had tapered off of all his narcotics and had a enormous reduction in pain. On month three Jon was fitted with his first prosthetic leg and was able to walk, unassisted for the first time in four years. Seven months later Jon did his first open track event with a prosthesis. By month 11 Jon was running and did his first 5k.
Jon currently competes in pro-touring, autocross and time trial events with his ROUSH Mustang. Jon recently earned his competitive racing licensing and formed a sports car endurance racing team call Resilience Racing with a mission to develop affordable racing-specific hand controls for our armed forces veteran adaptive drivers.
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