Doing battle for those in battle

Posted By DEAN MCNULTY, SUN MEDIA

Posted 4 months ago

Even though he raced only a limited schedule this season in the IndyCar Series, Paul Tracy appears to have launched a continent-wide awareness campaign to support Canadian and American soldiers wounded in battle in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Tracy got involved in the Wounded Warriors program through his sponsorship deal with Honda at the Honda Indy of Toronto and the Rexall Edmonton Indy earlier this year. The side pod of his Honda-powered KV Racing Technologies Dallara bore the program's logo and at $5 a pop, fans signed Tracy's racing suit. That bit of charity raised more than $50,000 for the cause.

"To represent Wounded Warriors has been an incredible honour for me," Tracy told the media after the Edmonton race.

And this past week saw NASCAR Sprint Cup championship leader Tony Stewart name Wounded Warriors, along with three other U. S. based charities as recipients of the profits from his wildly successful Gillette Young Guns Prelude to the Dream all-star dirt late model race at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.

While an accident in the final laps at Toronto prevented Tracy from winning his first race with Wounded Warriors, Stewart roared to the front after starting fifth at Eldora to win his fourth of five Prelude to The Dream event.

"This was probably the best I've run in the Prelude," Stewart, who also happens to own the Ohio dirt track, said. "We won last year, I think we led the whole thing, but this was one I had to work for. We weren't exactly perfect, and we weren't perfect because I hit the wall on the first two starts right off the bat."

Clint Bowyer finished 3.358 seconds behind Stewart in the runner-up spot, while Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top-five. Drag Racing standout Cruz Pedregon broke up the NASCAR sweep in sixth, with David Reutimann, Aric Almirola, Kasey Kahne and Jimmie Johnson rounding out the top-10.

"The Wounded Warriors Project, Fisher House, Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund and Operation Homefront -that's who this money's going to tonight," Stewart said.

Now Jeff Gordon, a four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, has taken up the cause.

Gordon's No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet will have the Wounded Warriors logo emblazoned on its hood at four of the remaining Sprint Cup races this season.

For those who don't know about the Wounded Warriors program it ensures that the medical and personal needs of soldiers who have been wounded as a result of deployment are met so they can focus on transitioning back into their professional and personal lives in their communities.

"While the medical care that our military members receive is second to none, when you're wounded and away from home, a little bit of Canada goes a long way in the healing process," Captain George W. Johnston, president and founder of Wounded Warriors.ca.,said. "This is where the work of Wounded Warriors.cabegins. We facilitate the funding of programs that assist military members suffering from both visible and non-visible wounds."

If Paul Tracy does nothing else in his hall of fame career he can look back at his involvement in Wounded Warriors as one of his shining moments in the sport of auto racing.

Mansell at Le Mans

Former Formula One and CART IndyCar Series champion Nigel Mansell -- he remains the only person in history to hold both titles simultaneously, and was the first person to win the CART title in his debut season -- may be setting his sights on a new goal.

Mansell told AUTOSPORT magazine this past week that a 1,000 km charity event recently piqued his interest in trying the Le Mans 24 Hours, the world's most famous sports car endurance race.

To that end, the 1992 F-1 world champion took part in the final round of the Le Mans Series at Silverstone in Team LNT's Ginetta-Zytek LMP1 car, along with his younger son Greg Mansell and team owner Lawrence Tomlinson.

Mansell admitted that racing at Le Mans in the future is something he would consider.

When asked whether he plans to contest the 24 Hours in future, Mansell told AUTOSPORT: "This [race at Silverstone] is just a one off at the moment, but don't discount anything.

"I went to Le Mans for the first time last year and I had regrets about not going and seeing it before. The whole event and the challenge of completing the 24-hour race is amazing. Everybody that finishes Le Mans has made a huge achievement, and to stand on the podium at the end must be sensational."

Even at age 55, Mansell still looks as if he could get back in a Williams F-1 car tomorrow, so if he does decide that Le Mans is something he would like to do, don't count him out of a podium finish.