Iowa Speedway News

SOURCE:  David Bulla, Insider Iowa, www.insideriowa.com

Jim Murray, the Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist for the Los Angeles Times, once described automobile racers as drivers riding would-be coffins.

 

Such commentary was blunt and flippant in the grand Murray style, but it voiced one of the major concerns of the sport: human beings in remarkably light vehicles accelerating well in excess of 100 mph face significant trauma when collisions occur.

 

In the back of everybody’s minds is the rare occasion when a driver dies. It doesn’t happen often, but it happens. On May 30, Chad McDaniel of Concordia, Kan., died after suffering head and neck injuries in a USAC midget race at Knoxville, Iowa.

 

Since injury and even death are realities in racing, it requires someone to help comfort those suffering with the physical and psychological scars. For the Indy Racing League, the person providing that comfort is Bob Hills, who serves as chaplain for the league’s nonprofit ministry. Hills is joined by Father Phil DeRea, a Roman Catholic priest.

 

Last month, at the Indianapolis 500, Vitor Meira had a spectacular crash. The eighth-year driver in the IndyCar Series broke a pair of vertebrae in his lower back. He’s been sidelined ever since. As soon as the wreck occurred, Hills responded.

 

“I spent as much time as I could with Vitor,” Hills said. “Because of where he was at, he knew what had happened. He had suffered fractures before.

 

“He’s in Miami now, so I’m not able to spend any time with him, but we hope to see him back out here soon.”

 

While accidents are a reality, Hills spends most of his time with more routine spiritual activities. For the Iowa Corn 250 at Iowa Speedway this weekend, he’s holding chapel, once for the Indy Lights folks on Saturday night and then three times for the IndyCar personnel Sunday morning before the 12:30 p.m. race.

 

“We also pray with our teams,” Hills said. “We ask for protection and hope that they do their best. Most of our drivers, I will pray with them individually, although not all of them do that. We’re non-denominational. That is, we try to help them where they are in their spiritual lives.”

 

Whether he’s giving six services at the Indianapolis 500 or three at Iowa Speedway, Hills faces a long race day. Sunday, he will be up at 6 a.m. preparing for 7 o’clock chapel. Then, after the race, he plans to hit Interstate 80 heading east for his permanent home in Indianapolis by 6 p.m. He will have one day off before he heads down the road for Richmond, Va., the next IRL stop.

 

In addition to their weekly duties with liturgy, Hills and DeRea also collect leftover food from track hospitality areas and donate it to local charity organizations. Sunday’s leftovers will go to Hope Ministry in Des Moines.

 

While Hills and DeRea work with the inner family of Indy racing, the fans have a local track ministry to which they can turn. Newton pastor Mark Young heads a group of volunteers called the Iowa Speedway Ministries. Other leaders on his team are Merle Smith, Aaron Loree and Fred Criswell.

 

If the occasion arises, the Iowa Speedway group will ferry family members and friends of patients to and from area hospitals when a serious accident occurs. If necessary, Young makes follow-up visits long after a race ends. That occurred two years ago on a Saturday night when a pair of motorcyclists were involved in an accident. The riders had to be airlifted to Mercy Hospital in Des Moines.

 

“I was at the hospital long into the night, but I was right back at the track early Sunday morning,” Young said.

 

Young’s group also has a tent on the concourse at the speedway where it distributes NASCAR Bibles and other literature to racing fans. Approximately 30 people are working the tent for the weekend’s races. This includes a group that shuttles the handicapped around the speedway. A second tent, donated by Vermeer Corporation in Pella, has also been raised on the race grounds. It is serving as the chapel tent this weekend. Young said the group has also started a campground ministry for fans who stay in recreation vehicles.

 

On race day, the Iowa organization will hold a worship service for fans at the Grinnell Mutual stage 9 a.m. Last year’s ceremony had more than 100 attendees.

 

“They are very short because people are mainly here for the races,” Young said of the race-day service. “We have a little bit of music and a devotional, and then we send them on their way.”

 

The speedway chaplains also do the invocation before the national anthem. Young did the prayer Saturday night and Smith will do the honors Sunday. They prayers have to be concise.

 

“You only get 15 seconds,” Smith said.

 

So why do these chaplains do this work?

 

“Our basic role it to be a voice of encouragement in the midst of a lot of difficult situations, some of them emotional,” the IRL’s Hills said. “One moment, you’re up because you won, and the next you didn’t do well—or you crashed. There are highs and lows, and we’re there to offer spiritual encouragement. To do this you need to like travel, you need to like racing and you need to love the Lord. And what makes this so enjoyable is the people in Indy racing. They will give you the shirt off their back.”   

 

Young agreed.