MOUNT VERNON – It was a Saturday he won’t soon forget.
Local quad racer Chase Zolman was involved in an accident on Feb. 27 in Milton, Florida, during a race for a $7,000 purse.
After a few days in the hospital, the 23-year-old Zolman is back in Mount Vernon, where he continues to heal.
“I had a bad start and I was making up ground,” he said. “Then I cut a corner a little too short.”
The edge of Zolman’s bumper caught one of the tractor tires that was used to mark the boundaries of the racecourse. Those tires, filled with dirt, didn’t budge. Zolman, who was running approximately 35 miles per hour through the tight S-turns, was catapulted — by his estimation — about 50 feet.
“When I landed, I planted my right foot down first,” Zolman explained. “It felt like somebody put a grenade in my knee and it went off. That’s how bad it hurt.”
As he lay on the track bleeding from a large gash on his left leg, the medics went to the rescue. The gash may have looked gruesome, but the damage to his right knee was worse, and the medics put it in a splint.
“They picked me up and put me on the back of a volunteer fire department truck,” Zolman said. “I told them they had to drive me by the starting line because I wanted to see all my friends before I left the track. So I waved to them and everyone applauded.”
Then came the 40-minute drive to Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola.
“They called in an orthopedic specialist,” Zolman said. “Then they wrapped me up. But they left the wound open all night and gave me antibiotics and morphine.”
After two or three hours in the hospital, he called his mother, Misty Zolman, in Mount Vernon.
“I told her, ‘Don’t freak out,’” Chase Zolman said. “I said, ‘I’m alive.’ She said, ‘What’s wrong?’ I said, ‘I had a bad crash. I’m in the hospital.’ I sent her a picture of my leg and she about freaked out.”
Hearing her son’s voice helped.
“He was the one who called me, so it was easier,” she said. “At least I knew he was breathing and OK. I think I dropped my phone. I’m not real sure.”
Zolman had surgery on Sunday morning to repair the knee and close the wound. His grandparents arrived and — after four days in the hospital — they drove their grandson home in their SUV, which had a mattress in the back.
“The trip home wasn't that bad,” Chase Zolman said. “They had me on pain meds, so I slept the majority of the way home.”
Zolman’s quad vehicle came through the accident with only minor damage to the front bumper. The other thing that hasn’t been damaged is Zolman’s enthusiasm for racing. In fact, he expects to be back and racing soon despite all he has been through.
“I’m going to try to rehab it myself,” he said. “I need to do it quick because there’s another race next month and I’m trying to get in it. Hopefully I get my stitches out before April 7. I have a doctor’s appointment at a specialist this week to see if my right knee is healing well.”
