Matt Gerald returns to Red Bud, the track that changed his life

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Mike Garrison

0 Aug. 10, 2017, 9:04 a.m.

By Mike Garrison
LiveRC.com

TORC - Matt Gerald Recovers, Returns to RedBud:
Written by Andrew Pfluger
www.torcseries.com

Single Buggy Racer to Compete at the Track that Changed His Life

For one sportsman series Single Buggy racer, TORC: The Off-Road Championship Series Rumble at RedBud has special meaning. Five years ago at this venue, Matt Gerald’s life changed forever. In the blink of an eye, Gerald’s racing career and work off the track was brought to a sudden halt. What happened at RedBud would redefine not only his outlook on racing, but life itself. And although it may have seemed Gerald’s 2012 RedBud race might have been his final stop, he has overcome insurmountable odds to return to racing and will join the TORC Sportman driver on the track again in 2017.

Matt Gerald was once an aspiring PRO Light racer, moving up within the short course ranks. After growing up watching his father, Curt, race buggies, Matt joined the fray at just 17 years old. He quickly established himself as one of the fastest in the class and had many battles with then arch-rival Mike Vanden Heuvel.

The season after proving his ability behind the wheel of a PRO Light by filling in for Jeff Kincaid, fellow racer Jason Janusz asked Gerald to drive his PRO Light for him. After a weekend of racing in Charlotte, the TORC Series continued to RedBud MX in Buchanan, MI. It was there, on May 25th, 2012, that it happened.

“In qualifying, I was keeping up with the fast guys, and I ended up over-jumping the big tabletop,” Gerald recalls. “It was a big jump, and then there was a step-up. I had too much wheelspin going up and I just stayed in it. I ended up hitting the face of the [next] jump.”

As Gerald sat there in the truck, unable to move his legs, he thought the numbness would subside. But after being removed from the truck and brought to the hospital, Gerald received a very different prognosis. “The doctor was straight with me and he said, ‘there’s a good chance you might never walk again.’”

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