Not only a hero, but also a friend, Patrick is Canada's only real presence in New England short track racing right now, and that presence is huge.  In 2005 alone, he won the Fall Foliage, the Milk Bowl, and the Unity 250, three of the biggest races in the region.  He's talented enough to go south and make it, no doubt in my mind.

 

I like Cris because I know where he came from.  He's just a regular guy, but he wins races and championships because he's a damn good driver with a damn good team.  But more than that, his career started exactly the same way mine did - with a piece of crap car in the Street Stock division at Thunder Road.  In fact, he raced against my father.  Now, he's a three-time "King of the Road".  What more can you ask for as a kid like me?

 

Since I was three years old, I have flipped through page after page of Stock Car Racing Magazine and later Speedway Illustrated, just wishing I could some day have my name on a by-line in a Berggren-headed magazine.  I met Dr. Dick at Thunder Road a few years ago, and he really gave me the inspiration to get a writing career started in earnest... and my dream still exists to one day work for him.

 

Who doesn't want to be Dave Moody?  Man, he is the coolest guy ever.  He gets to sit in the tower and call the action at the greatest race track on Earth.  And to think that his work at Thunder Road has brought him all the way to Daytona is pretty awesome, too.  Dave creates national heroes every Sunday afternoon, just as he creates even bigger local heroes every Thursday night.  And after all, he created Jamie "The Hurricane" Fisher, "Birdman" John Adams, and "Joo-stan San-Louie".

 

"Dynamite Dave" has won everything there is to win, and he's the nicest guy around to boot.  I have autographed pictures of Dion and Crouch hanging over my bed, and Dave's autobiography has instantly become my favorite book of all time.  Dave is definitely my #2 guy.

 

Andy is almost a carbon-copy of Brian Hoar (or Jean Cyr, for that matter), and he's just as successful.  In fact, Andy just clinched his fourth-straight Busch North championship.  His work ethic is almost too much to keep up with, and it's paid off for him - in just his third race after shattering his leg at Daytona in 1998, Andy won a Busch South event at Pikes Peak, Colorado in a 20th-place car.  The man can do anything.

 

As long as I've been reading Berggren's magazines, I've been in awe of Bones Bourcier's imagination, style, and creativity in his writing.  Everything he pens is gold, in my opinion.  On top of that, like Berggren, Bones is from New England and writes about things that I truly care about.  Shaking from nerves, I introduced myself to him at Racearama in 2005.  Shockingly, he knew who I was.  I thought to myself "How?" and told him how much his writing meant to me.  It was one of the greatest thrills I have ever experienced in my racing life.