Canada, Cancer and a Young Man with a dream

I won't use names in this post because I didn't ask permission, although I'm sure the parties involved would have no problem in my doing so. I would have asked but I truly had not planned to post a Forum this morning until I read my young friend's post on FB this morning. He is 18 years old and he wakes up every Saturday morning during racing season and headlines his "good morning" with "It's Race Day". Because he lives in Canada, racing season doesn't get underway until about the last weekend of April or first weekend of May.

Please allow me to digress a little and give you some background. Three, maybe four years ago, one of my FB friends asked me to "like" page for a young man suffering from cancer. I don't remember the specific cancer but the young man was about 15 at the time and was a huge race fan. One of the cars at the local dirt track actually had the young man's picture on the hood of the car and everyone was praying for and hoping for complete healing. That didn't happen. The young man passed away. By that point in time I was friends on FB with most of his family and we all went through a period of mourning at a beautiful life cut short by cancer. It was a devastating time for us all.

The young man of whom I write today was driving at the lowest level of dirt racing in Canada at the time. Not sure exactly what influence the death of his brother had on him, but the subject of this writing decided to commit himself to racing and that he has! Last season he had a fair run, winning a few and placing well in most others.

This season, so far, in the five races run, he has won four. He has posted some videos for me to see and watching those videos lets me know the local short track racing in Canada is no different than the short track racing here in South Carolina. The same formula seems to apply whether here in South Carolina, Canada, or in Australia where I have young racing friends who send me results and videos. To me it appears that a young racer with the will to race has the same fire no matter where.

So, as I was checking my FB messages this morning, I had one from the young man in Canada which began, as always, with "It's Race Day". They will be heading to the track tonight and most probably another win. Oh, the only race he lost this year? Mechanical problems with the car.

Racing History? Not yet, but one day we may look back on this young man, whether he goes on to race in later years or not, and know that the spirit of true racers lives in the hearts of many. Good luck tonight and throughout the season to my young Canadian friend.

Just wanted to share that with you all. Sometimes I am inspired by the least expected influences. But this time I think it was really worth the comment.

I'm wishing the best for your Canadian friend this weekend.

A ray of sunshine on what was a rainy Charlotte morning.

Thanks, Dave. Maybe that's why I wanted to write this today. It is rainy and dreary here too but my young friend always has a way to inspire. When the other young friend was in his last days with cancer, he was just an inspiration every day. The day he died was the same day I received an e-mail from him telling me how much it meant to him to chat with me every day. He thought of me as "The Legend". I thought of him as a "hero". He was an awesome young guy as is the young man who is the subject of this post.

Tim, As always you come up with something to inspire us and make us see the good side in a bad situation. Both your young friends in Canada sound like wonderful people. If possible, please share the young racers name so we can follow him and pull for him.Thank you.

Bill, the young man is Jeff Schives. His father, Scott, does most of the work on the car. Jeff is quite a piece of work and really fun to chat with WHEN he has time between racing and girls.