I am a 47 year old man and I've raced for 20 years. My father raced from the time he was 18 until he was in his 60's. I have always been around race cars and except for when I was very young, it has always been sprint cars.

I watched my father win a feature at Bunker Hill Speedway when I was six years old and thought it was greatest thing in the world.

I saw Rick Ferkle win an Austrailain Pursuit in less then half a lap at I-96 Speedway and right then I knew I had be be a sprint car driver.

I worked two jobs for two years to buy my first sprint car (a '79 Shores) and I'll never forget the feeling the first time I fired it up.

I lived a life long dream by starting and finishing the Little 500.

But I also broke my leg in a crash that should of never happend, but did because I was too stupid to get out of a ill handling car.

I watched my 65 year old father flip a car and have to be airlifted out.

I stood by by best friends hospital bed as they adjusted the halo he was wearing from a broken neck recieved from a sprint car crash.

I stared into a fellow drivers eyes as life ebbed from his body.

And I watched the anguish on a fathers face as his son's blood ran accross the track. I wonder how he would feel about this thread?

Tom Paterson