Over the course of his long racing career, Rick Stout earned 23 track championships and the 1995 IMCA national modified title. However, perhaps one of Stout’s biggest wins came when he beat Covid-19 at the end of July. He had spent eight weeks on a ventilator and 119 days total in hospitals and rehabilitation centers.
“It was my best victory ever,” Stout, 65, of Stanton, Michigan, said. “The battle to win wasn’t easy. I had to be taught how to breathe, swallow, and walk again. I’m still going to physical therapy twice a week.”
Stout contracted Covid-19 in between receiving his first and second vaccinations. He had led an active life. Stout operated a push truck at Crystal Motor Speedway in Michigan. He was involved in his grandkids’ sports endeavors.
All that came to a halt as he battled the effects of Covid-19 for nearly four months.
“Being on a ventilator was horrible,” said Stout. “I was sedated completely. They gave me a tracheotomy with a feeding tube. I have little memory of the eight weeks I was on the ventilator.”
During this time, Stout’s wife, Kathy, struggled with the thought of her husband’s life in danger and not being able to see him. After two weeks on a ventilator, the hospital finally permitted Kathy to visit her husband.
“He was in isolation,” Kathy said. “When I did get to see him, he was sedated. I could not speak with him. I went there every day for six weeks just to sit with him.”
After doctors weaned Stout off the ventilator, he went to rehab at Sheridan Community Hospital. When he left there, the hospital’s staff and Stout’s family and fans lined the halls and amassed in front of the facility. Stout received a standing ovation.
“One of my friends, Sonny Clark, said it was only fitting that I left the hospital on four wheels — even though it was in a wheelchair,” said Stout.
In mid-August, Kathy drove Stout to Crystal Motor Speedway, where he was the driver to beat for decades.
“I loved to run the outside groove — half on and half off,” Stout said. “Being back there was a tremendous feeling of emotion.”
Two weeks later, Stout returned behind the wheel of a push truck and back to a sense of normalcy.
“Every case is different,” said Stout. “When I got to the hospital, a 24-year-old, healthy, and strong [man] came into the Covid ward. He died four days after he got there. It’s spooky that the virus doesn’t care who you are. I had no known health conditions. I was healthy, and it took me down.”
After her experience, Kathy expressed her thoughts on vaccinations.
“If anyone asks our opinion of Covid-19 and vaccines, we don’t preach,” Kathy said. “Everyone has their own mind. If you would have walked my journey and saw what it did to Rick, I don’t think you would hesitate getting vaccinated.”
Seemingly, friends of Rick Stout took note of what he went through.
“When my unvaccinated friends saw what happened to me, they got vaccinated,” said Stout.
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
