I want to report on a couple of things in the column this time. One of
them makes me feel really good about people and the other makes me feel
rather bad about people. I guess it depends on where I find those
people and what they are made of.

The thing that makes me feel really good about people is the
unbelievable response to my plea to help a fellow drag racer. In my
last column I told of Kathy Fisher’s minor need of a few dollars so she
could attend the last event on the IHRA schedule in Rockingham, N.C. As
I reported, she needed just $1000.00 to be able to meet the budget to
attend. While she and I were talking, it occurred to me that if only 20
of her friends would donate $50 each, she would have enough to make the
last race.

You know, the greatest thing I have found in my retirement years are
the people I meet at the races. A tremendous number of those people I
have met I now call my friends.

I have also been fortunate enough to meet a great number of the racers competing today and a lot of the legends from the past.

These are two examples of why I always consider myself to be one of the luckiest people in the world.

I am writing about a topic that has been a discussion piece for a long
time but due to some recent developments and numerous questions about
what my opinion is on the subject I have been prodded into sharing
them. In doing so I want to remind everyone that this is my opinion, it
always irks me when people are asked for their opinion and when giving
it get barbequed for it. You don’t have to agree with it that’s why
they call it an opinion and not fact.

The recent “rivalry” that has developed between Tony Schumacher and Hot
Rod Fuller, in my opinion, is a great and needed addition to our sport.

In Denver, Hot Rod had a shirt made that while I thought was hilarious
evidently infuriated quite a few people. I am not sure how or why
someone or a group of people would find this so offensive, in fact Hot
Rod pretty much made fun of himself on the front of the shirt and made
no actual derogatory reference to Team Schumacher, he left it there for
everyone to connect the dots.

Little Rock, my travel van named in honor of Eric Medlen after his
favorite cutting horse, just keeps on rolling. Little Rock fell right
into the routine of hitting the road almost every weekend and heading
to a racetrack somewhere. He has thrown a shoe (flat tire/blowout) on a
couple of occasions (he is the proud owner of 4 new Goodyear shoes now)
and has gotten a burr under his saddle once or twice (alternator and
water pump failures) but he has proven to be a valiant steed and seems
anxious to get back on the road when we are back home at the Double R
ranch in Greer, SC. In the short time he and I have been partners, we
have traveled close to 50,000 miles on the trail. Roll on Little Rock.
God Bless Eric.

WHY?

No other question is more common or seems more relevant in the light of
extreme tragedy than this single-syllable inquiry. Occasionally in the
world of racing, this question is asked from hurting hearts with
painful concern. Having been a minister for 35 years, I’ve been granted
the opportunity of helping people face the tragedy of death on many
occasions. While never a pleasant experience, I have repeatedly seen
God comfort the deep hurt to which we are all so vulnerable during such
times.

Two very important issues need to be settled at the very onset when
coping with the tragedy of death. First, we must realize that God does
not will tragedy to take place. Second, it is sometimes best not to ask
"why."

Christianity teaches that Christ was sent into this world that we might
have life, and that we might have it more abundantly. God is a God of
life; he is concerned with life and wants us to know and enjoy life
more fully. 

The ladies, God Bless them!
  
No, this isn't about Hillary Clinton.
  
Or even one's wife as a means of making up after an argument.
   
This is about the fairer sex, some pretty danged hard-nosed, in the
rough and tumble world of racing. Yep, driving, riding, publicizing and
writing about.
     
As you probably realize, it wasn't always so.
  
Far from it, in the arena or even in the garage or on the media side of things.