By: Kevin Ramsell
BURLINGTON, WI (Wednesday, July 30, 2008) – So far this season Russ Blakeley has not only been battling the competition in the American Speed Association Kwik Trip Midwest Tour presented by ECHO Outdoor Power Equipment, but he also has been working to removing a disease that he didn’t know he had, Hepatitis C.
“I went to get a life insurance policy about three years ago and they did all of the tests and I couldn’t get a policy because they said I had Hepatitis C,” the ASAMT Touring Star from Whitewater, WI recently stated during practice at Iowa Speedway. “I did some research on it and we kind of traced it back to when I did search and rescue in the navy for four years, because it’s a blood to blood contact type of disease. So it doesn’t matter where it came from, I had it and the treatment is pretty severe.”
According to webmd.com, Hepatitis C is a disease caused by a virus that infects the liver. In time, it can lead to permanent liver damage as well as cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver failure. Blakeley was diagnosed with genotype 2 hepatitis c, which is one of the easier types to treat.
That treatment would start about a week after the ASAMT Championship Banquet in January. “You do a shot and it makes you really sick and you don’t feel like doing anything but sleeping. It used to be that the way they used to do it, 50% of the people would attempt or commit suicide. So they started mixing it with some other drugs to help but it’s still a really tough deal and a lot of people don’t do the treatment,” Blakeley stated about the severity of the treatment he was about to face. “I decided to do the treatment and we got it cured in six months. It was a really tough six months, especially with the three months of the racing season while I was doing this medication. So what I would do is shoot up on Mondays and then by Friday/Saturday I would feel a little bit better. That is how we went down that road.”
“It’s a shot that basically just kills you inside then you do some pills with it too everyday morning and night. And they just make you wore out, drugged down and you don’t feel like doing anything except for laying on the couch all day. So it makes it really hard to get motivated to do anything,” Blakeley explained. “It’s tough, you don’t like anybody, you don’t want to be around people, so it makes it a really long six months. And the treatment is typically a year, but I had Genotype 2 which is the easier to treat and we killed it in six months.”
For the first half of the 2008 season, Blakeley would call upon his pit crew to step up and help while he endured the treatment. “My guys had to contribute a lot more effort then they had too before. I had to find somebody to start helping me drive the hauler, because after the race I couldn’t drive the hauler home. They had to do a lot of things that I used to do just so I could sit down. I would run out of breath,” Blakeley said. “The biggest part of the pills I would take would lower the hemoglobin’s in your blood. So you could walk ten steps and you are out of breath. I just couldn’t do as much so my guys had to make up for it. I got a really good group of guys this year, they are the reason we have made every show and made the races.”
His crew’s hard work motivated him to go out and do more than anyone would ever expect in his condition, “At Madison, I was throwing up the whole race in the car. We ran the Big 8 race that day also and that was before our race. And I was sick when I got in my car, but not terrible, but at about lap 20 I was dry heaving in the car. I would have just parked it if it wasn’t for the effort they put forth to get us there. I think we came out of there 12th or 13th.” Actually, he finished ninth. “The biggest reason I am at the racetrack because the doctor told me that I wouldn’t be at the racetrack, so we are here.”
The ASAMT event at I-94 Raceway in Sauk Centre, MN was a milestone for Blakeley, “It’s gone out of its system. I took my last treatment the week before we were up at Sauk Centre.”
With the treatment being over, Blakeley actually saw some positive results from it, “The thing is while I was on it I didn’t feel like eating any junk food or anything, and I lost 30 lbs. I ate right cause I just didn’t feel like eating. I actually come out of the thing in pretty good shape. I work out a little bit, trying to keep my energy levels up. So I was trying to do a little working out and exercise. So, I actually came out of the deal in pretty good shape. It’s taken a while to get my energy back, but definitely on the right track.”
But, Blakeley just doesn’t have his team to thank but the entire ASAMT competitors and teams, “This is not that hard of a deal, there is a lot of work at the shop, a lot of preparation, these guys all work real hard to be here and we have some of the best guys to race with in the country. We haven’t wrecked any race cars this year meaning that everybody in this garage, this season no one has junked their car. We tore a couple of fenders off what have you, but that is a tribute to some really good drivers and some really good guys to race with and it makes it a lot easier when you are out there and someone is not trying to run you over or knock you out of the way and the whole deal,” Blakeley remarked. “Its one thing to get spun out, to knock a fender off but we haven’t wrecked a race car. Maybe it’s not good for the fans, but it’s good for all of these guys’ pocketbooks and gets them back to the next racetrack. Because there are a lot of race teams here that are on a real small budget and if they wreck a race car, they aren’t coming to the next few races. And that means we don’t put people in the stands, the whole sport gets hurt. You attribute it to a whole bunch of good guys.”
With the treatment being over with and the virus gone, all Blakeley has to do now is look forward, “We feel good about it and look forward to racing the rest of the season without worrying about it. Maybe we might do some other races around just because we can.”
