17 year old Richard just completed his sophomore year in North Carolina this past April. Richard many classmates thought due to his age had been held back a year but that wasn’t the case. Richard was diagnosed with cancer at age 4 and started school a year late. By age 7 Richard was cancer free and now celebrating ten years. Richard’s Dad had taken a job in Louisville Kentucky while he stayed in North Carolina to finish the school year which ended in April due to year round school. Richard’s parents like many in North Carolina are stock car racing fans and often went to the legendary Hickory Speedway near their home. Richards parents liked a more rural setting and elected to live in Henryville Indiana which happens to the birthplace of the legendary Colonels Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame. Henryville is about 20 miles North of Louisville. Richard did not really care for racing and was happy when he was old enough to stay home from the races. preferring basketball and baseball as his sports to watch. Richard was excited about moving to Indiana for several reasons. Indiana has some of if not the best high school basketball. Louisville has a triple A baseball team and Richard looked forward to going to some games in the summer. Richard living in a rural area in North Carolina got his driver’s license and a car because it was really the only way to get around the rural area in North Carolina where he lived with his family. Richard concerned he would have to jump through hoops to get his Indiana license but being more then 16 years old 180 days only has to take a written and vision test to get his license in the state. The vision screening is what had Richard concerned. Richard a private kid passed his vision screening easily for his permit but when he got his license though he passed it seemed harder. Richard was told one of the side effects of his cancer treatment was his eyesight could get to the point of needing glasses. Richard did not tell his parents of this concern and sure enough when he tried for his Indiana license failed the vision screening. Richard got an eye exam and glasses which the Dr. said he was right on the borderline to wear as needed verses full time. Richard said he was going to wear his glasses as needed as required for driving and if he had trouble seeing the board in school. Richard parents were happy to find several race tracks both dirt and asphalt within a 2 hour drive of their home. On May 5th the Kentucky Derby took place which meant the Jeffersonville Sportsdrom 15 miles South of Henryville and 5 miles North of Louisville closed for the weekend. You can see the Sportsdrome from I-65. Richards got his glasses that Saturday and after going to the Clark county License Bureau that day is now the proud holder of his Indiana license. Richard’s parents elected to go to the Indianapolis Speedrome that night as his Dad had a Brother who is an Uncle he had never met that would be there. Richard expecting to stay home that night was not happy when his Dad told him he had to go because of never meeting his Uncle. Richard did not care seeing the races clearly and did not plan on taking his glasses but he did not know his Mom slipped them in her purse. On the way North to Indianapolis Richard’s Mom told him she had his glasses and his Dad said now you are going to get your first experience driving with glasses. Richard’s Dad pulled into a rest stop near Columbus Indiana and told him he was driving the rest of the way. Richard who is a good driver even getting a manual transmission car and teaching himself to drive it because neither of his parents never learned one. Richard did very well driving with his new glasses including the tricky I-465 bypass around Indianapolis. The family met his Uncle for supper and went to the track. Once at the track Richard after parking the car took his glasses off and said he wasn’t going to wear them. The Speedrome was running over an hour behind due to weather and while the rain was gone it was going to be cold. Once inside the track watching practice the family Except for the Uncle no one in the family had ever seen or even knew what figure 8 racing was. In fact I was once at Hickory while in town for the NASCAR 600 mile race in Charlotte. When the half crazy public address announcer walked thru the stands asking where are you from and what type racing do you have there? I said Indiana and I’m sure the announcer was expecting me to say Indy car as this was the night before the 500 but I said figure 8 and he didn’t know what it was. One car that was actually a regular Jeffersonville caught Richard’s attention as it had cancer sucks painted on it where a sponsors name would be. Sadly the car was involved in a intersection crash and was out for the night but no injuries to either driver as the other car ran very well in both an oval and figure 8 feature. When the late model figure 8 cars that were running a 90 minute timed race came out for practice Richard’s Dad said they look like a version of late models which the basically are being the fastest figure 8 cars anywhere. Richard asked his Mom for his glasses but he had to go out to the car to get them. Richard walked back into the track wearing his glasses because he wanted to see figure 8 clearly. The night went on with Jeffersonville cars winning both the oval and figure 8 features in the new affordable racing division. There was a front wheel driver figure 8 which ran straight thru despite a minor crossover crash in which both cars kept running so no stoppage of the race needed. Now it’s time for the main event the 90 race with the bad fast late model figure 8 car. There were several wrecks which caused both red and caution flags but no major driver injuries. The family including Richard was delighted to find out from a fan that the Sportsdrome also ran figure 8 and on some of the outlaw races some of the same cars running the 90 minute race would run. Upon leaving Richard’s Dad decides to make him drive (he was still wearing his glasses walking out) and again does very well driving all the way home despite having limited interstate experience. Future updates will be featured in the comments.
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