Loss of L4P member CTRacer - Part II

Christian Richard Klorczyk

Waterford - Christian Richard Klorczyk, 21, of 55 Westwood Drive, Waterford, entered eternal life on March 11, 2011.

Christian was born June 6, 1989, in Latrobe, Pa., and was the very beloved and cherished son of Frederick J. and Lynne (Sepesy) Klorczyk. Christian was raised in Connecticut and was a 2007 graduate of Waterford High School. Christian was currently a senior Dean's List finance major at the University of Connecticut School of Business in Storrs, scheduled to graduate in May. He is a lifetime brother of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity and a lifetime member of The National Rifle Association.

Christian was a man who lived his life with passion, valued and honored his family name, and especially recognized the value of a man's word and handshake. Cars, the history and technology thereof, Formula 1 racing and the high technology of the sport, snowboarding, his family, his friends, trap and skeet shooting, and excelling at all he chose were Christian's priorities. Along with his father, brothers, and friends, they could often be found in the garage or driveway working on cars with tools from Christian's immaculate six foot tall toolbox.

Christian spent his first track day at Monticello Race Track in New York last summer and became addicted to being on the track. Along with his father, brothers, and friends, he was in the process of modifying a Porsche 996 turbo to run this season at tracks in the northeast and mid-Atlantic states.

Christian spent every winter break snowboarding out west and recently returned from a Lake Tahoe/Heavenly trip with Jordan Ransom who was his best friend and essentially his twin brother. He boarded every opportunity he had at Killington, Vt., and fortunately was able to spend part of his last week there with Jordan. By now, Christian has met the men in Heaven that he admired most of his life, his grandfather Frederick J. Klorczyk Sr., whom he never met on earth, Enzo Ferrari, Ferrucio Lamborghini, Ayrton daSilva Senna, and Ferry Porsche.

Christian's brothers, friends, and fraternity brothers described him as a man full of happiness with an infectious and contagious smile who spread his happiness to those around him. He was a man of character and dependability, proud of his family's and friend's accomplishments, and never lost sight of his family's humble beginnings, work ethics, faith and pride in America. Christian was never negative, never afraid of hard work, be it physical or academic, and typically fought to pick up the tab at the bar. Until this year at UConn, Christian had quite a fear of dogs. He and his housemates adopted a mixed breed pit bull from a quick kill shelter on her very last day of life. Christian quickly fell in love with Stella, and wondered how he actually lived without a dog in his life.

Besides his parents, Christian is survived by two brothers, who loved him with all their hearts, Frederick J. Klorczyk III of Brooklyn Law School in New York City and a UConn graduate, and Parker N. Klorczyk of St. Thomas More School in Oakdale, soon to be a freshman at UConn; his maternal grandparents, Dr. Richard S. Sr. and Norine R. Sepesy of Monroeville, Pa.; uncles, Donald A. Klorczyk of Sandy Hook, and Dr. Richard S. Jr. and Kathy Sepesy; and aunt, Janette A. and husband, Robert T. Regola III, all of Greensburg, Pa.

He was predeceased by his paternal grandparents, Frederick J. Sr. and Elizabeth A. Klorczyk.

Christian's family will receive relatives and friends from 6 to 9 p.m. on Thursday and from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Impelliteri-Malia Funeral Home, 84 Montauk Ave., New London. Family and friends are asked to gather for a Mass of Christian Burial at noon on Saturday at St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church, 170 Rope Ferry Road, Waterford. Interment will be private.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations in Christian's name be made to Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, 365 Montauk Ave., New London CT 06320.

Published in The Day on March 16, 2011

 

Loss of L4P member CTRacer - Part III

A Father's Strength
Section Sponsored By patch

Dealing With The Unfathomable With Courage And Grace

By Paul Petrone | Email the author | March 22, 2011

At UConn, the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity honored its fallen brother by painting a rock on campus. The same rock was painted for former UConn football player Jasper Howard after he was slain in 2009.


On March 11, Christian Klorczyk died when the BMW he was changing the oil on fell on top of him. He was 21.

But for his father, Frederick Klorczyk, Jr., it is important to concentrate on how he lived.

“Christian was a man who lived more in 21 years than I have in 56,” he said. “Just a fine, fine man, as are … his brothers.”

Last week, more than 1,000 people came to pay respects to the Waterford High School graduate at his wake. And one day later, his father eulogized his son at Christian’s funeral.

“As difficult as it is to comprehend, the time to move on will come, and the manner in which we do so will show our true integrity and respect for Christian,” he said in his eulogy. “Moving on doesn’t mean forgetting. It means taking the positive impact he left behind and using his legacy as motivation to strive for success in honor of his life.”

Christian was one of three sons, the others Frederick III and Parker, born to Frederick and Lynne Klorczyk. The couple met on their first day of college, when Frederick was 17.

“Lynne and I were in exact agreement in how we wanted to raise our sons to be self-responsible gentlemen in a civil, polite society,” Frederick eulogized. “Some of you may know all of them, and some of you may only know one. However, by knowing just one of them, you probably know the others to a large degree and you likely know Lynne and me as well. We are a very close family, with a DNA thread that transcends distance (as witnessed by our cellphone and text message bills). We can pretty much read each others’ minds.”

In 2002, for Christmas, Frederick wrote a letter to his son. Christian would hold onto that letter until the day he died, and it remained as true that day as it did then, Frederick said.

The letter:

Dear Christian,

You have become quite the young and good man in the past few years. It seems to me that you leapfrogged some of the steps from child / adolescent to young man. I am happy to know that you enjoy your life in this family and the world and want to assure you that you add a huge amount to it. Our family is far from normal for several reasons, such as your grandmother living with us, me being ill, having our own company and thus having a variable income structure. Additionally, you are growing up in an unusual age – seeing our freedom-based country attacked on our own soil, living in heightened security greater than ever before, dealing with day-by-day reports of war and people attacking what America stands for is something a little odd for us. You have managed to adapt to all of that and still become the most wonderful son and young man.

Your abstract and complex sense of humor always makes me laugh and seeing your motivation to learn new things like working hard on the car, chipping tile and hanging wallpaper is a sign that you will accomplish great things and not accept the world as is. The fact that you have accepted your role academically, you recognize your responsibilities as a student, without whining and prodding, just get the work and studying and studying done on your own accord, is fantastic. That gives me great confidence that you will succeed when you go off to college and on your own as I believe you truly understand the connection, creativity, self-discipline, open-mindedness, academics, happiness and success, however you define that.

Nothing gives me greater pleasure and adds value to my life than being with you working on the car, the tractor, in the yard, traveling, snowboarding, etc., and seeing you learn and being happy. Seeing you appreciate the difficult cultures in San Francisco and L.A. was really neat for me and seeing you listen to the music I listened to when I was young and reading the stuff I read such as Steinbeck is rewarding.

You have given me much pleasure and support over the past years and I hope that I have done my job as a father, role model and friend as well as I could, as that is what you deserve.

I could not be happier and more proud of having you as a son.

You have made my life better simply by being in it.

If I were to die tomorrow, I would do so knowing that you will carry on our name with great pride.

Merry Christmas 2002... and know I love you. Forever.

Dad


The Story of the Accident

On March 11, Lynne Klorczyk picked up Frederick Klorczyk Jr. at 3 p.m. at the train station. They got home at 3:30 p.m., and found out Christian was late picking up his brother from St. Thomas More.

After calling his friends and coming up empty, Lynne decided to search the garage. At just after 4 p.m., she opened the door and saw Christian underneath a red BMW.

At first she thought her son was just working on the BMW and began talking to him. But when he didn’t answer, she realized he was crushed and called her husband.

As Lynne called 9-1-1, Frederick rushed in and jacked the car back up, with the same jack Christian originally used. He then added two jack stands underneath the car (there were already two underneath) and pulled his son out from under the car.

Frederick began chest compressions, trying to get him to speak. When responders arrived to bring Christian to Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, he was pronounced dead on the scene.

Christian, had two jack stands underneath the car, and the jack itself did not fail. Frederick refused to release the exact way the car came crushing down.

“No one in the world knows but me… what he was doing and it was 100 percent safe,” he said. “To recreate it would take a tsunami and earthquake such as Japan is suffering now - one in a billion chances.”

That said, Frederick did release this message:

“To those of you who are ‘car guys’ out there, please invest in the more expensive jacks with backup pins rather than those sold in local retail outlets so this tragedy is never repeated again,” he wrote.

Christian Klorczyk was a member of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at UConn. To honor its fallen brother, the fraternity painted a rock in campus honoring Klorczyk. The same rock was used to honor former UConn football player Jasper Howard after he was slain in 2009.

 

Loss of L4P member CTRacer - Part IIII

I am Christian Klorczyk's father

Good Day,


I feel that I must respond to this post for the sake of accuracy, the honor of my son and family name and also to attempt to save other lives.



Lynne and I are the parents of three sons, Frederick III, Christian, Parker and our "adopted sons", his twin brother Jordan, Dimitri and Dan - all "carguys".



As stated in the article....



"The 21-year-old died Friday after a BMW he was working on collapsed on him in the family garage. Fred Klorczyk said that a floor jack likely failed while his son (Christian) was under the car changing the oil."

Jeff Johnson did a great job on the article on our son, brother and friend and I thank him for that. Jeff was a true gentleman who talked to us for hours in our darkest times to get an accurate depiction of our son and family. However, and unfortunately we do not have it on tape, nor is Jeff a "gearhead" and doesn't really understand jacks, jackstands and multiple layers of safety. I never said, nor is it accurate to say "that a floor jack likely failed..."

Christian is an experienced mechanic who started working on cars and following Formula 1 when he was a small child. He and our whole family witnessed Ayrton "Magic" Senna die at Tamburello 15 years ago. Yes, Christian was only six at the time and he would wake all of us up at 6:30AM to watch the pre-race show in Italy on satellite.

Christian is a true car guy as are his brothers and friends. My business is in the most safety conscious market in the world - nuclear boats, nuclear ships and nuclear power plants. That mentality is my life - has been since I was a kid engineer out of school. Ask any of my employees how I feel about safety. They have the right to stop any job and call me at anytime as no one is to ever get injured on our jobsites. This naturally carried over to my homelife. By the way, my father was a large machine mechanic by trade and a "gearhead" by avocation. No one would use the wrong tools - we have them all and all are of quality. No one in my garage or driveway would ever go under a car with only a jack of any kind holding it up. The jack elevates the car, jackstands support at proper points while working underneath and the jack is removed to improve accessibility. Period. Block the wheels if necessary. Emergency brake on. Car in gear. A lift would be better but we just were not at that point in our lives yet.

Christian had the right front tire off so that he could shine his double halogen lights on the work area and see clearly. He also had that tire/wheel under the right front rotor as an extra measure of safety as is a habit of ours when possible. He had four ton Craftsman jackstands in use. Two were just bought at Christmas when I sent him to buy a new jack since ours is getting to be five years old. Hydraulic cylinders and seals degrade over time. He didn't buy the jack since he felt what Sears, etc., had were junk so he bought more four ton stands but without safety pins. I did not realize there were redundant safety stands until... it was too late.


Christian was using my father's creeper for the first time. He found the creeper when cleaning the garage over Christmas. When he applied torque to the ratchet handle to break the plug loose, he experienced the law of physics of "equal and opposite reaction". As the plug broke loose, the creeper did also in a direction opposite to the torque vector Christian applied. Some part of Christian's body, some part of the creeper, the mallet beside him, something - we have no video, just supposition and theory... tripped the right front jackstand lever inadvertantly from the underside and a ton of the BMW E46 3 series xi crushed his chest and his right cheekbone. He never took, or could even attempt to take a second breath. Death was immediate and painless. If I were beside him at the time this occurred I could have done nothing to save him. This has been verified by five friends of mine who are doctors. I used the floorjack Christian used to elevate the car to get the car off of him. It was parallel to the car just as he would place it when he removed it from the jackpoint. I had to engage the cylinder with clockwise rotation which tells me Christian removed it per proper procedure. I had the jack underneath and car off him in seconds. Jackstands were under before I crawled from under the valance while Lynne called 911. Lynne came under with me from the wheelwell and had a pulse on his neck. She said he it was strong. I was doing chest compressions and trying to get a verbal response until the EMTs got there. When I heard LIFESTAR waved off over the EMT radios I had a sick, sick feeling.


A critical factor, in my professional engineering opinion, is that the creeper raised his body 3.5" higher than it would have been if he would have been working on the concrete as he was used to. It also raised his head 4.5" higher as there is a foam pillow headrest. Both creeper caster wheels at the head position were sheared from the creeper. I can only wonder that if Christian did not use the creeper would he have had the jackstands that high, would the energy at 9.8 m/sec squared have been decreased to a minimum so that if the freak accident happened he would have been injured less, would the extra measure of the tire under the rotor have saved his life without the extra creeper height, would he be alive today? Only God knows.


Christian is a fine, fine man who was known for his smile, intelligence, passion and willingness to help anyone at anytime... just like all of his brothers and "adopted brothers". The five of them and myself were his pall bearers. He would have it no other way. We were that close.


Also, to my fellow "carguys" and "gearheads", please learn from this tragedy. Scrap your cheapo jackstands... do your research, find the best jackstands there are, use the secondary and tertiary safety factors, do not fall to the temptation of human nature and operator error - use the extra safety factors! It may save your life, or maybe the life of you son. Had I would have known such Christian would be with us today.


Lastly, if you want to drive fast please do not do it on the road. Racetracks are readily available for that adrenaline rush we all crave. Track days with instructors are cheap and you are protected far more than on the street. Be mature. Race on the track not the road where lives are endangered.


Godspeed Christian! May you be driving God's Veyron for him.


Please feel free to cut and past this article anywhere you think it may prove valuable to fellow "carguys". I pray that none of you ever suffer such a tragedy. May God Bless you all.






Frederick J. Klorczyk, Jr.
Waterford, CT
fjk143@aol.com

 

Very sorry for your loss. As a father myself, something I hope to never go through.

 

I am saddened to hear of your loss... Will be missed on L4P.

 

Wow. So sorry. May he RIP.

I have never trusted floor jacks and never will thanks to this, lift only.

 

Sorry to hear, he had good taste in cars if he had a BMW!!!

 

RIP. Sad story.

 

I think you should organize a BMW car show in his honor!

 

Actually,

Christian and his brothers are modding my old 996 turbo for track days in the northeast and mid-atlantic states. Another month or so it will be at 600/600 with a full cage, PSS10's, HREs versus the old Champions, six point Schroths, flashed, Fabspeed headers, exhaust, intake, new leather GT3 seats, stripped interior, Hoosiers, et al... What a shame he will never bump the rev limiter.

He and his brothers were also starting Spec Miata racing this year and they had me shopping for the toterhome.

The Bimmer was his snowboard car (AWD) maintained to the max. His driver was an 2006 Acura RSX Type S with the usual performance mods and JDM work done.

A true carguy and a great man, son, brother and friend.

 

I am deeply saddened for you loss. We will honor his memory with a banner tomorrow on l4p. I have a son that is 10 years old and can't imagine life without him. I am so so sorry for your loss.

 

This is absolutely shocking



Very respectable sir, my condolences to all.

 

That's horrible. My condolences to you and your families. May he RIP

 

My condolences to all, may he be United with his fallen racing heros. R.I.P

 

Wow, I can't even imagine something like that happening to a family member or a friend. My condolences...

 

My condolences sir

 

Sorry to hear that. RIP

 

Very sad set of circumstances, resulting in a tragic loss of life. Hopefully this may make any fellow enthusiasts take extra caution when working on their own cars. My thoughts go out to his friends & family.

 

Thank you. FYI, he learned to drive on a Ferrari. These kids have AGIP in their blood.

 

Sorry for your loss. It sounds like he lived life to the fullest. May his memory live on!

 

Sorry for your loss, life is so short and fragile. Your family is in my prayers.

 

Really Sad to hear, RIP.

 

Very sad to hear, may he rest in peace.

 

very sorry for your loss!!!

 

Very sorry to hear. My prayers and condolences go out to the friends and family. R.I.P.

 

WOW! I dont even know what to say


VERY sorry to hear about your loss... Your family and friends are in our prayers

 

R.I.P.

Sorry for your loss and my prayers go out to you and your family