Thank you for believing in me, I'll make you proud

"Thank you for believing in me, I'll make you proud"

Those were the words spoken by Brian as I loaded his frail broken body into Accessible Racing's specially equipped race car designed for people with disabilities. With respect to Brian's wishes I won't tell you how he became a quadriplegic, just that he is a "bigger man than me" for the lessons he taught me that sunny day at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Brian was about to live his dream "to drive a race car " after hearing most of the world tell him "no" and "you can't do that." Thanks to Accessible Racing, the disability community can experience the same thrill that the rest of us just take for granted if we want to spend the money.

I drove up to Atlanta to help with this driving experience and came home two days later so overwhelmed by my experience that I can't get any of it out of my mind. I have never been around people with serious disabilities and didn't even know the proper way to act or talk to them. As we worked together preparing for the big moment, we realized we were becoming a team as well as friends. This experience drew a lot of attention even though we were trying to "fly under the radar" with some of it, just so the track wouldn't get to nervous and pull the plug before it happen.

Many things went wrong along the way including a dead battery, engine over heating, pleading with security at every check point, and not knowing where to go most of the time. Through it all the people with the disabilities were our strength and inspiration to not give up and "make it happen". Brian was schedule to drive the race car during the parade lap before the start of the Sprint Cup race on Sunday with me in the passenger's seat. Brian had his heart set on taking one of the other handicap people (Michelle) with him but it was too risky for the track. I won't finish this story but let's say "he made me proud" like he said he would.

I haven't had a lot to get excited about since I got out of the race car last fall but this was a great honor to be part of and pretty exciting in a different way. I know it's a thrill to sit in, ride in and drive a race car but for these couragous people it has meaning none of us will ever understand.

I'll try to stay more active with web page updates in the future now that I have a passion to be around race cars again. Thanks for checking out our site again after a long, long summer without racing.

Yours truly,

Dave