Rosenbohm Racing

United Association Route 66 NHRA Nationals

Tony — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 22:59:42 +0000

Justin Rosenbohm has advanced through Round 3 and is in the Final 6 cars. Justin will be competing on Sunday for a chance to win the United Association Route 66 NHRA Nationals!

Justin’s New Ride

Tony — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:08:05 +0000

Just letting everyone know that a couple of Justin’s friends got a plan together a couple of months ago,When we found out about Justin having to have 2 kidney surgeries we came up with a plan.The plan was thought up by Shawn Agnew a friend of Justins in Erie Ill with the help of me ( Rod Cady) ,Travis Cox Marcus Bush,Alan Bush Mike Rosenbohm and Mark Rosenbohm we stole his car when he went in for his second surgery,we brought it back to my shop in Erie and stared work on it. in the last 2 weeks we striped the car down to bare metal and repainted the car,completely rewired it, installed new lexan windows ,new throttle linkage,new fiberglass doors,hood, bumpers,and scoop,all the fiberglass parts were donated by Robert Mortenson from GLASSTEX ,Mike Coughlin from JEGS donated new msd 7al3,dedenbear relay center,painless switch panel and various other odds and ends, Scott Ryder from Weld Wheels donated a new set of Pro star rims ,Dan Driscoll of skys the limit graphics donated all the graphics, Anthony Layne of Layne automotive and speed donated aluminum for the door panels,we had various automotive shops donate paint and supplies. On saturday we tricked Justin into coming to my shop he thought is was my 40th birthday party , when we got him here we surprized him with his car the look on his face was priceless and worth all the long hours of work that the whole crew put into it, I wanted to put a picture on here but i cant get it figured out so i sent one to Lee Lones hoping he can get it posted . Thank you for your time for reading this i know it was a long post and i hope i didnt miss anybody that helped out.
Rod Cady SST 3447

Wow! I just wanted to let everyone know how truly grateful I am for this whole deal. After going through what I have over the last 6 months, I can’t think of anything cooler that could have put a smile that big on my face. Just awesome. . .and anyone who says drag racers aren’t a second family is sadly mistaken. My biggest thanks goes out to Rod Cady, Shawn and Josh Agnew, Alan and Marcus Bush, Travis Cox, Robert Mortensen @ Glasstek, Mike Coughlin @ Jegs, Scott Ryder @ Weld Wheels, and all others who helped make this possible. You guys are simply amazing. Seeyou all at Cordova. . .Justin Rosenbohmrosenbohmracing.comNHRA S/ST 31

Rosenbohm fighting disease, itch to get back on track -QCTimes.com

Tony — Thu, 08 May 2008 22:53:29 +0000

Justin Rosenbohm wants to defend his three consecutive National Hot Rod Association Division 3 Super Street Class titles this summer. But he can’t.

Two kidney surgeries await, and he is trying to recover from two January brain surgeries.

Rosenbohm, a LeClaire, Iowa, resident, has Von-Hippel Lindau Disease, a rare disorder in which tumors grow in the body’s organs and central nervous system.

He won’t let the disease slow him down. A brain surgery scar on the back of his neck runs down the center of his skull and limits his ability to turn his head. He is blind in his left eye because of a tumor that detached his retina. In spite of all that, he raced at Cordova Dragway last week in a street car, his 1987 Corvette, and finished runner-up in the True Street class.

“It was fun. That’s where I like to be,” Rosenbohm said. “Just to be back over there with all my friends competing again. A lot of people were glad to see me, and it’s something they probably didn’t think I could do.”

He will race at Cordova this weekend, but that likely will be it for the summer. He’s scheduled to have surgery to remove a cancerous tumor on one kidney May 14 and another on the other soon after that.

It would be easy to call Rosenbohm’s fate cruel. He recovered successfully from two January surgeries, regaining his leg strength and mobility, raced again, only to have surgeries sideline him again.

“It’s not even fair,” his father, Mark, said. “He just turned 25, so he’s not really anywhere close to being old enough to have this sort of thing happen to him. He went from the highest of highs … but then everything just went to hell.”

Justin doesn’t see things that way.

“If I wasn’t able to drive, it wouldn’t be the end of the world,” he said. “If I wasn’t able to do it, I could still be involved. But if you don’t have your health, you don’t have much. You should be thankful to be able to do anything like this.”

But racing has been his world since he was 15, when he took second place in the Street Class of the World Series of Drag Racing at Cordova.

He won his first Division 3 title in 2005 and won two more after that, including last year’s title win despite no vision in his left eye for most of the season.

Rosenbohm said he knew the disease might come. While it is extremely rare in most people, he had a 50-50 chance of contracting the disease because his mother had it.

She had a brain tumor when she was 25 and hasn’t had any complications since.

“That’s the goal,” Justin said. “We get rid of this stuff now … and hopefully everything’s OK.”

Rosenbohm discovered he had the disease when he was 17, after he had surgery on his right eye to remove a tumor. The disease struck last year on his left eye, but he didn’t see a doctor right away.

“He didn’t want to deal with it, because after the surgery it affected his vision a little bit, so he didn’t want to go to the doctor,” Mark said.

But scar tissue built up, blocking the drainage of fluid from his eye. It burst, detaching the retina, and he lost sight in that eye.

Justin had tests on his right eye in January, and he underwent an MRI. His doctors found tumors on his brain and kidneys, and the surgeries were scheduled to remove them.

While recovering, he keeps his reaction time sharp by using a practice tree in his basement. The tree is a replica of the light stand on drag strips that tell racers when to launch. The doctors have told Justin he could take as much as six weeks to recover from the kidney surgeries, which would put him back in the drivers seat in August, barring complications.

He can’t work at Outback Steakhouse in Davenport, where he waits tables and sometimes bartends, but his managers say his job is waiting for him when he gets better.

Justin almost is nonchalant about the disease. The surgeries will remove a percentage of both kidneys, but he focuses on the fact that he only needs a small percentage of one kidney to avoid dialysis.

The rest is spare parts.

He and his father call the disease a speed bump. It’s another opponent to beat off the line. Putting the pedal to the floor will help him outrace it.

“I don’t know what everyone is worried about, it’s just a kidney,” Justin wrote on his Web site,rosenbohmracing.com. “I mean, I just had two brain surgeries!”

The thrills he gets from winning races drive him to recover. He will push himself to return to racing shape.

“My motivation is to get healthy and get back in the car again,” Rosenbohm said. “Because that’s where I’m the happiest.”

Justin’s ordeal has inspired others. There are Internet message boards such as classracer.com filled with well wishes. His e-mail inbox is overflowing, too.

Some events have allowed drivers extra practice time if they make donations to defray some of Rosenbohm’s medical costs.

Another fellow racer, Lee Lones, has taken the charitable contributions to the next level. He designed a decal racers can put on their helmets or cars. The blue logo is a bomb with a smiley face, for Rosenbohm’s nickname, the bomb.

Lones, who races in the same class as Rosenbohm, said a friend has been selling the decals on the East Coast and has run out, raising more than $900. Justin has health insurance, but it doesn’t cover all of his medical costs.

“He’s an awesome kid, I’d do anything for him,” said Lones, a native of the Chicago suburb of Custer Park, Ill. “He kicks your butt on the track, but then he has this great smile, and how can you not like a guy like that?”

Contact Nate Bloomquist at (563) 383-2201 or e-mail nbloomquist@qctimes.com

First Surgery Scheduled

Tony — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:21:06 +0000

Wednesday May 14th is the scheduled date for the first kidney surgery. Justin is in great spirits and excited to get things taken care of. “I don’t know what everyone is worried about, it’s just a kidney,” said Justin, “I mean, I just had two brain surgeries!”

Two Finals - One Weekend

Tony — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:20:30 +0000

Over the weekend of May 2nd Justin had the itch to get back to the track that he had to scratch. Rosenbohm Racing took the ‘Vette, to Cordova and came away with two finals. It’s amazing how far Justin has come in just a couple short months. There is still a long road to travel, but Justin is full of optimism and this past weekend was nothing but a positive.

Surgery Scheduled ; Pushed Back

Tony — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:50:24 +0000

Justin’s surgery to remove a portion of his kidney was to take place on Wed. April 2nd, but has been pushed back to May for the risk of possible complications in his eye. There is a bit of swelling still there and the doctors want to make sure there are no further problems before proceeding with another surgery. While this may be difficult news short term, it is a positive sign that the large amount of doctors working with Justin haven’t forgotten to work together on all aspects of his recovery. Justin is extremely grateful for all of the notes, messages, and cards he has received.

Hard Times For The Champ

Tony — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 22:38:27 +0000

As most of you know, our NHRA Division 3 Superstreet Champion, Justin Rosenbohm, is fighting many tough battles right now. A seemingly healthy 25 year old, Justin is suffering from Von Hippel-Lindau Disease,–a relentless disorder in which tumors invade the body. Some are benign, while others are cancerous.In the Spring of 2007, Justin lost all of the vision in his left eye due to this disease. Now a year later, Justin has been trying to recover from two brain surgeries, only to be attacked by painful cancerous lesions on both kidneys. There are benign tumors on his right eye and on his spine which will also need future attention, once the cancer on the kidneys is dealt with. He is facing all of this with a lot of courage and determination, and we pray every day for his full recovery.We have been deeply moved by the outpouring of love and support from this community–though hardly surprised, because to know Justin is to love and respect him. Many of you have been asking what you can do to help. So I wanted to let you all know about the “Justin Rosenbohm Medical Fund” which has been started to help with medical and related expenses. Thankfully there is some medical insurance, although coverage is minimal. Justin and his family are faced with an outstanding number of medical bills, with more to come in the future for additional surgeries and hospital stays. He has been unable to work since his first brain surgery in January.If you would like to donate, you can do so by sending a check payable to the Justin Rosenbohm Medical Fund, and in the memo line of the check, write in account number 30341759. Please send your check to the following address:

First Central State Bank
1291 Eagle Ridge Road
Le Claire, Ia. 52753

If by chance money is raised above and beyond medical expenses, it will be donated to an organization dedicated to treatment and to finding a cure for Von Hippel-Lindau Disease. Hopefully we can all make a difference in eradicating this devastating disorder.

Road to Recovery

Tony — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 01:06:09 +0000

Please keep Justin in your thoughts and prayers. He has been struggling with a recent medical issue. I will leave the details to him when he recovers. While the issue is serious in nature, Justin is progressing very well. Shoot him an email to let him know you’re thinking of him, or just leave him a message below.
rosenbohmracing@yahoo.com

Champions!!! Three Years in a row!!

Tony — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 05:18:00 +0000

Rosenbohm Racing has won the 2007 Division 3 Super Street Class again this year. With a tremendous amount of work the team has now won the division for the 3rd consecutive year in a row. Rosenbohm Racing will be heading to Indianapolis this January for the Annual NHRA Div. 3 Banquet.Please stay tuned for more news concerning Rosenbohm Racing this Winter.

Victorious in Kentucky!

Tony — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 05:16:19 +0000

Rosenbohm Racing was victorious in Bowling Green, Kentucky at the NHRA Lucas Oil Series race over the weekend of Aug. 24-26th. The team took 1st place out of 52 drivers in competition. The win vaulted the team from 4th to #1 in the overall season points championship. Sunday started out with the team winning the first round of competition, essentially qualifying them 8th out of the 26 first round winners. They then advanced past another 5 rounds of tough competition before landing in the winners circle late Sunday night. The last race on the Lucas Oil tour for Rosenbohm Racing will be Sept. 28-30th for the Jegs.com Northern SportsNationals.