Eyeing a new goal: Retina surgeon Patrick Staropoli is back on the ARCA platform after 10 years

The story of Patrick Staropoli is a perfect example of why one should never give up on his or her dreams.

He’s a 35-year-old retina surgeon who last competed in an ARCA platform event during the 2015 season. Now, 10 years later, Staropoli is back after signing a multi-race deal with Venturini Motorsports. The opportunity is one Staropoli isn’t taking for granted.

“It’s been a whole lot of hard work over a lot of years to try and get back to this level and to this point, and it’s been a whole lot of not giving up,” said the native of Plantation, Florida who now lives in Houston. “I’ve always wanted to be racing in NASCAR and in ARCA.”

Staropoli’s journey in racing has indeed been a strange one.

In 2013, he won the PEAK Stock Car Dream Challenge, essentially a driver search competition funded by PEAK and supported by Michael Waltrip Racing. That victory allowed him to make multiple starts in what is now the ARCA Menards Series West driving for Bill McAnally Racing.

Staropoli made the most of those starts, scoring a win at California’s Irwindale Speedway in 2014. He thought that would be the launching pad to a successful stock-car racing career.

“It feels like a blur now,” Staropoli said. “It was so unexpected to get my break by winning a driver search competition. In the first race we did, that was supposed to be it, but I finished fifth in my first start. Everyone just said, ‘Wow, that’s unexpected, we need to give this kid more races.’

“I ended up having good finishes in all of them and won the West race at Irwindale, which is a track I grew up watching people race on TV. I thought it was one of the coolest tracks in the United States. Not only did I get to race there, I got to win there.”

Unfortunately, sponsorship and opportunities soon dried up for Staropoli, and his promising career disappeared overnight.

“Obviously I had the association with Michael Waltrip Racing, which was huge,” he said. “I thought I had kind of a pathway that would lead to more. That time in my life was super special, and getting to run those tracks that I never thought I’d get to compete on.

“After that was done, obviously I needed to go back and focus on my education and just hope someday I would get another big shot like that, and that is kind of what has come together now.”

With a career in racing seemingly out of the question, Staropoli focused on his education, which led to a career as a retinal surgeon. He now resides in Houston, Texas, where he works for Retina Consultants of Texas.

“I’m a retina surgeon, so I take care of any problems that happen inside of the eye,” Staropoli explained. “So retinal detachments, trauma, bleeding in the eye, any kind of infections or inflammatory conditions that can affect somebody. That’s what my specialty deals with treating.

“It’s a sub-specialty of ophthalmology. It took about 12 years of schooling in total to get through all the medical school, residency and fellowship to get to this point. But that’s what I do on a daily basis. I’m usually in clinics seeing a lot of patients, or I have one day a week where I operate.”

Despite things not working out 10 years ago, Staropoli never completely gave up on racing. After making one start in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2016, Staropoli maintained a regular presence at the grassroots level racing mainly Super Late Models for friend and team owner Jim McCoy.

During that period, Staropoli’s focus was on his education, so he made only handful of starts each season in McCoy’s No. 64. But those starts kept him sharp just in case the right opportunity came along.

That opportunity arrived in the form of sponsorship from Syfovre, a prescription eye injection approved for the treatment of geographic atrophy secondary to age related macular degeneration.

Additional information is available by visiting Syfovre.com.

“I had this opportunity miraculously come together to work with Venturini and do these ARCA races this year,” Staropoli said. “I couldn’t be more pumped. I’ve wanted to be here for the last 10 years, and it feels really good to be back.”

Staropoli will make his first of five scheduled ARCA platform starts with Venturini Motorsports this Friday at Phoenix Raceway, with additional starts scheduled for Talladega Superspeedway, Rockingham Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway.

Staropoli hopes to have more announcements to make soon, but for now, his focus is on his five ARCA platform starts with Venturini.

His goal for those starts is simple: Make up for lost time and make the most of his second chance.

“I’m lucky, I get to live my dream twice,” Staropoli said. “I’m going to make it count.”