IndyCar teams help build house for disabled vet

U.S. Army vet Frank Gazvoda's Speedway, IN garage

It may be the offseason for the Verizon IndyCar Series teams, but don't think for a minute they're taking it easy. Quite the contrary, in fact.

One such example would be on Saturday, Oct. 10th when The Fuller Center and the Pit Crew, a group of IndyCar team members established to assist veterans, dedicated a newly rebuilt home at 1928 Allison in Speedway, Indiana to disabled veteran Frank Gazvoda. Gazvoda suffered a back injury in a training accident in 1992. He and his 2 sons were living with his mother and the new home will provide a place for Frank to call his own.

The Fuller Center is an Indiana nonprofit that exists to eliminate to repair and renovate substandard housing for the purpose of eliminating poverty housing, supporting homeownership and eliminating homelessness. The organization has no paid staff and their office is run out of a spare bedroom in Linda Fuller's home.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]The Pit Crew launched in March of 2012. Under the leadership of Trevor Michener, they have renovated 6 homes over the last 3 years. The project on Allison was a complete rebuild of the house which occurred in 5 days.

IndyCar Team members from Chip Ganassi Racing, Andretti Autosport, Dale Coyne Racing, Team Penske, Schmidt- Peterson and CFH racing were on hand in helping rebuild the 3 bedroom house. Team Penske provided a transporter so the teams could have an office to coordinate the work that had to be done. Sage Karam's sponsor, Comfort Revolutions, provided new beds for the children. Although A.J. Foyt's Houston-based team was not involved with the onsite work, longtime sponsor ABC Supply provided shingles for the house. The garage was remodeled by Performance Tire Service Company, who provides all the Firestone tires at every race event.

The PTSC team is proud of the work that was done to create a modern garage. The garage or 'the man cave' as it was referred to, is quite impressive and PTSC owner, Steve Butz was excited to unveil his crew's work to Frank. As the garage door went up, the Firestone IndyCar was sitting in the middle of the racing memorabilia filled garage.

"We were not able to tear down the old garage, as they had done with the house. Instead, a team of my guys from my shop took the roof off the old garage and rebuilt the roof and the walls," said Butz. "It has aluminum Diamond Plate on the bottom half of the walls and then slat wall on the top half, to organize the tools. The Kiwi tile garage floor are black and red. We worked for 2 weeks getting the job done for today's dedication."

Frank is extremely grateful to the IndyCar community and the Fuller Center. The 43 year old was chosen from a group of candidates to be able to live in the house. His house payment will be interest free and will go the Fuller Center to help fund their next project.

"Without the talented IndyCar personnel, the job would not have gotten completed in a week. My thanks to Roger Penske for sending his transporter out here for a week. I have a whole bunch of new friends now. And I love looking out my front window and seeing the Pagoda at the track."

Lucille Dust is an IndyCar Correspondent for AutoRacing1.com

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