Sportsman Competitor Rocky Warner Speaks Candidly About His 2015 Season, the Battle He Almost Loss and His New Perspective on Life
Story By: MATT NOLES / RACERSGUIDE.COM Photos By: JEFF KARABIN PHOTOS
SPRAKERS, NY- February 26, 2016- Rocky Warner had a dream season in 2015. In fact, if racing were a work of art, he would have been a Rembrandt; his year was nothing short of a masterpiece.
With a new ride behind the wheel of Jake Spraker’s famous No. 1J, the ‘Flying Squirrel’ rocketed to the top of the standings at nearly every track he competed at and in every series he competed in. With 29 feature wins, including the final sportsman event run on the mile in Syracuse, Warner was on top of the world. Then fate stepped in and the wave he had been riding came to a sudden and complete stop.
Life is merely a colorful tapestry made up of occurrences that seem to come and go at random with no logic or order at all. Yet every now and then, the hand we are dealt, whether fair or not, seems to make sense leaving some to state that everything happens for a reason. At times it does; that is if you believe in such things.
“Last year we started off at a good pace and when mid-season came, we just kind of picked up,” Warner remarked. “We went on the road and went to some big shows and ended up winning a bunch of them.” With titles and series championships abounding, Warner found himself in a position that many drivers hope for yet seldom find throughout their career.
“As a driver, to have a season like we had last year, that’s what you always hope for,” stated Warner. “At the same time, it doesn’t seem realistic. I’ve won a lot of races during my career but to say that the beginning of the season that I’m going to win 29 races seems kind of unreal.”
As unrealistic as it may have been, fate seemed to have it in the cards not just for Rocky, but for his father as well. “At the beginning of the season I wanted to beat Jake’s [Spraker] win total as an owner,” stated Warner. “He had a year where he tallied 17 wins between multiple drivers. I wanted to win 18.”
As the year rolled on, so did Warner’s win total to the point where his father was convinced that his son would far exceed everyone’s expectations. “When we got to win number 18 my dad told me I was going to win 30,” Rocky said with a chuckle. “It was an unrealistic number until we got to the end of the season.”
As the year came to a close, Rocky charged ever onward like a steamroller crushing every event in his path. “It seemed like every big race we went to at the end of the year, we won,” Warner continued. “I mean, we won the sportsman portion of the Fulton 200 weekend, the big Granddaddy race at Glen Ridge and we won down at Five Mile Point. I think out of the last seven big races of the year, we won six of them.”
After a season that will undoubtedly go down in the record books, most drivers would find themselves under extra stress to duplicate their results again. The 2015 Utica-Rome Speedway sportsman champion driver isn’t like his peers in that respect.
“I’m sure that when you do it once everyone holds you to that standard,” explained Warner. “I myself don’t expect to do that again. It’s one of those deals where it was a dream season and I believe that a lot of those wins happened for a reason.”
With his father in poor health throughout the year, Warner looked to other explanations for his success in 2015. “My father was on his way out and I think this was a ‘Jesus take the wheel’ kind of thing,” Warner remarked. “He was with me for most of the races I went to and I think a lot of things happened for that reason. I think it was meant to be for him to see this season be a dream season.”
What’s even more incredible, aside from the win total in 2015, is that Warner and Spraker were a first-year team. In racing most newly formed ventures seem to take time to flourish and show their full potential. The duo of Spraker and Warner threw that theory out the window. “Jake’s not afraid to give you what it takes to do your job,” commented Warner. “He also expects you to do your job and we didn’t let him down last year. Jake was very good to me and we have a great relationship.”
It seems that when you’re on top the way Rocky was, you’re almost waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop. That happened in a big way after the season was over with the first blow being the hardest of them all as on November 24th, Warner’s father lost his lease on life leaving his son behind to face the rest of his days without him.
As if that weren’t enough for one person to come to terms with, a near-death experience left the Gloversville, New York native alone in a hospital bed at the Albany Medical Center. “I woke up on January 19th to get the kids off to school and all of a sudden it felt like a motor blew up inside my throat. It was just a very vicious banging in my upper chest area.” That sensation wasn’t a motor but instead something far worse; he had two large aneurysms on his aorta leading to his heart.
“My whole right side was going numb and I thought I was having a stroke or a heart attack,” recalled Warner. “I wasn’t sure what it was but I knew it wasn’t good.” Instead of ignoring the issue, which Warner may have considered if it hadn’t persisted, he decided to seek medical attention as soon as he possibly could. It was a decision that would save his life.
“I had to call my fiancé back from work to take me to the hospital,” Warner continued. “I wasn’t even there for a half hour and they were shipping me off to Albany Med. The aneurysms were a pretty serious deal and they were worried they would burst.” His life was in the balance as he was rushed into emergency surgery. In short, Warner had come within fractions of an inch of passing from this realm to the next.
After some minor complications during surgery, Warner woke up and would spend an additional 16 days lying in a hospital bed until he was finally released and sent home. “When I got home to recover, it was kind of a slow start,” said Warner. “My fiancé took the time off to help get me better and at least now I can get up and get out of the house.”
Trying times, especially where nearly passing away is concerned, often have the ability to change ones outlook on life. The same can be said for Rocky Warner. “It makes you look at things a little differently,” Warner continued. “I was always living life wide open and on the edge in all aspects of life and I never had a care in the world. Now, I’ve learned that tomorrow’s not a given, there’s no guarantees that you’re going to wake up the next day.”
With a new lease on life, Warner looks to the future more than just the present as he once did. “Before I was living for today and never thinking about tomorrow,” Warner said. “But with what I went through it kind of makes you look at life with a different angle on things. I have two young kids to look forward to watching grow up, graduate high school and hopefully go to college. My perspective has definitely changed now.”
There is, of course, one question that many race fans and his fellow competitors are pondering; when will he be back behind the wheel? In short, only when he’s absolutely ready to be. “I fully intend to come back this year,” stated Warner. “But here’s the thing; I don’t have anything left to prove so I’m not going to race unless I’m feeling 100 percent.”
Spoken like a father and future husband more than a racer, Warner is being cautious about his pending return and for good reason. “Like I said, I have two young kids to worry about and a great woman I’m going to marry and I want to be there for them,” Warner concluded. “I’ll be back this year. I can’t say if it will be in early April or not, but I’ll be back.”
