Hey Guys,
Yes I was there and it was shocking and sad.
Matt Garcia died instantly after running into the back of an SUV in the second race. The SUV was not there in the first race minutes earlier. It was the only car parked (for the entire mile of the course) on the right side of a very wide dead end street. The person in the car just pulled over to watch having no prior knowlage of the event.
Matt was having steering problems and decided to go again anyway. He also did not strap his helmet.
All these things came together with a tragic outcome.
Matt and his brother Jesse rented a shop next door to me. Matt was 22 and Jesse 25. They were great to hang out with. Happy, funny, eager to learn, and I enjoyed helping them.
Matt loved his soapbox. It was the most exciting thing he had done in his life. His mother told me that he would come home from the shop and the races smilling, joking and telling stories about his good times and the fun he had with Evil Ed and I. We were all also in the Yakety Yaks car club together.
We all joked about death but never thought it would happen.
The SFVISBF message board is here -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sfvisbf/
Rest in peace Matt.
The organizer of the SFVISBF posted this on our board today-
Sunday was the hardest day of my life and I'm sure it was for some
of you as well. The fallout from these sort of things can be ugly,
this one could have been much worse for sure, it shows the excellent
character that comprised our soapbox drivers. Even before this
tragedy we had a camaraderie and brotherhood that few people get to
experience in this cold technological age. We rolled down hills
together as a family. The outpouring of love and concern has been
tremendous; it just reaffirms that point that what we had was
special, rare, or even unique in this world.
In the wake of this, there will be angry people trying to point
fingers; we need to not be that way. Most people understand this,
some don't and that is on them. You can't retroactively change what
has happened, no one would have walked away from that crash, not
even me and you have all seen me get up time after time even though
I shouldn't have. So all the "if's" and "but's" aside, there was
nothing we could have done, we wield so little control in this
world.
Currently, I've posted a pic of our fallen soapbox brother on the
website, everything else is shut down. We need time to collect our
thoughts. There has been talk of people wanting to continue, at this
time I don't have the emotional stoutness to be at the helm anymore,
this event has been a crushing blow for me, the whole thing is
tainted now. I'm not that strong of a person to continue in the face
of what has occurred. Tick came by; he has been wrestling with his
own demons (hence his absence). He's on the mend. Neither of us are
feeling like moving forward on this as we talked about it yesterday.
The media has been pretty aggressive and I've been shrugging them
off, I recommend you do the same. Anything you say will be truncated
or altered to fit their purposes; they are not to be trusted. In the
next few days, it will be yesterdays news for everyone else that was
not involved, I'm asking you all to weather the storm in silence,
they will only chase this story for so long until they move on to
other things. I talked to the police and told them how we got
started and all the details of how the races are run etc. They asked
if we had a permit and I told them we did not. I think a permit if
for 50 or more people and since we don't let people come watch us; I
don't know if the permit is an issue, we'll see.
The Future: Tick and myself are going to pay for the services, when
that is I'm not sure but as you may have seen, they want us all to
attend.
Mini-Moto and future soapbox derby's are on an indefinite hold,
perhaps forever. I guess it's up to the individuals to decide what
they want to do. We will need time to sort out these details, and
it's the least of our concerns at the moment.
Thanks to everyone for being there and showing their true humanity,
good hearts and minds.
Jesse posted this yesterday-
My name is Jesse Garcia, some of you know me, some of you don't. My
brother MATTHEW Joseph Garcia, lost his life yesterday. He loved
soapbox racing and running with us, he knew the risks and always
accepted responsibility for his actions. Matt was a guy that everyone
liked or loved, and if you hated Matt, you were an *******. We loved
soapboxing and working on our car. I thank all of you for the support
and greetings, and for the memories, we simply loved it. To the core
few that were with us yesterday, I simply can't express what it meant
for you to be there with us, I love you all. Now for the blame game,
that's ******** plain out. Matt wouldn't have blamed anyone, not a
single ****ing person, I wouldn't have either, and neither should any
of you. This is tragic and shouldn't be used as a pulpit to ****ing
preach about how right you were. Thats all I need to say about that.
To the "journalist" all I ask is show some respect, have some
decency. Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers and I ask you to
continue praying. All my soapbox brothers will be kept in the loop
regarding services, not one of you will be left out. Once again thank
you all.
Jesse Garcia
