Race For The Cure

[rocco79]

“A Race for Many”

Definition of the word “Friend”
• A person whom one knows, likes, and trusts.
• A person whom one knows; an acquaintance.
• A person with whom one is allied in a struggle or cause; a comrade.
• One who supports, sympathizes with, or patronizes a group, cause,
event or movement: such as, “A Race for the Cure”

In a perfect world there would be no diseases, no violence, car
accidents, no harm to anyone what-so-ever. In a perfect world only could
this happen. There are many different obstacles that one must face in
there lifetime, the only drawback is that a lifetime has no minimum time
span. It could be just a few seconds to many years, but during that
lifespan some people have the unfortunate wake-up call when they start
to feel different from the days before. It could be nothing or it could
be something, but whatever it is it should never be ignored. I didn’t.
If many of you remember back in January I wrote something titled “My
week(ness) in Hell”. It was my wake up call to being diagnosed with the
life threatening disease diabetes. I did my best to try to describe to
everyone how it felt for me during that week that forever changed my
outlook on my life. As hard as it was and as much self pride that I
have, I thought it would make a good story for my “friends” to get a
good look of how it can be in the time of need. It was a very hard road
and I had to dig deep to fight on, but I found the strength that I
needed from some of my friends that I made during my years of enjoying
this hobby and from my bride to be, Michelle. She was there for me at my
lowest of times and knows what I was going through. My fight still
continues on today and will for the rest of my life, but it is much
easier now that I educated myself in nutrition and exercise and workout
daily. I honestly don’t know how long this routine will continue to work
for me, it may work until I’m gone or it may work for another day, I
don’t know. But if another obstacle gets thrown my way, I will deal with
it in the same manor of seriousness. You never know what may or may not
happen, but I will be ready when the time comes.
When I first had the idea of hosting a charity race I did my best to
be prepared for anything. Imagine my disappoint when I arrived Saturday
morning to find many people missing from the pre-registration list that
was starting to look like a good turnout. My past experiences attending
races with low turnout attendance or deciding to go to a different event
or not do any racing at all, has giving me mixed feelings on why guys
didn’t attend said event or mine for that reason. I do understand that
many of you that initially signed up let me know that you my not be able
to attend do to some other event around the same date as my event. I
would be lying to you if I said I wasn’t disappointed on the low
turnout, but the thing that concerns me, is if it was personal, or maybe
some of you thought that I was going to pocket all the cash and laugh my
way to the bank, or maybe you just don’t like me, I really don’t know. I
do understand that some of you had a problem with the entrée fee of $50,
some of you couldn’t “swing it” and told me the fee was too high. It is
from my experience that RC car racing is not a cheap hobby/sport and you
must pay to play. This was no club race, it was a charity benefit.
Charity benefits are not cheap to hold and the main reason for hosting
one is to benefit the charity, in this case, the American Diabetes
Association. I don’t want anyone to think that the only reason why I
care so much is because I do have the disease, if that’s the case, you
would be wrong. I have been involved with charities pertaining to “MS”,
my cousin died because of it in the worst way; she simply just faded
away to nothing in a comatose state. I took part in the yearly MS 150
ride in her honor for four years straight and the entrée fee at that
time was $100, but can you honestly put a price on trying to find a cure
for something serious? I do understand that this was not a national
event or some type of money race to add to a racing resume or monthly
race report, but nobody can tell me that a sponsor would not be thrilled
to hear of you attending a race in support of a charity. After all, we
had lots of support from many companies that loved to be part of this
and whose stickers grace the sides of all those fancy RC car bodies.
More importantly, you could have come to honor a loved one, a family
member, or just some “friend.” As many in attendance did just that.
For those that did attend, I would like to personally thank each and
every one of you. We all had the opportunity of being part of something
that will benefit the lives of millions of people that are in need of a
cure, medication and study and research to hopefully find a cure for
diabetes. I am so proud of our accomplishment and we have succeeded to
raise $2500 to the charity! We should all be very proud of this, our
hobby had a very good weekend and we showed many that RC car racing can
be used to make a difference. Thank you so much for not letting a thing
like a weather forecast over-shadow reality.
Many of you came up to me and thanked me for having this event, you
told me of someone you knew with the disease and of yourselves that have
it. I thanked you for coming and we talked about our experiences about
living with it. You all know who you are. I wish you all the best of
luck in managing your diabetes, I do know how hard it can be, but no
matter what, never give up.
All in all, we had a great time. Whether at the track, Hooters(hell
yeah!!), Fridays, or just shooting the chit. I hope all you guys and
girl, had a great time. The second annual will be better and bigger and
have a date change to hopefully work with everyone’s schedule. We will
do this again to raise money for the ADA. There will be more of
everything, food , prizes, giveaways, raffles, all for the sake of the
charity. Oh Yeah!! And racing too!!!

Thanks for your time,
Your Friend,
Joe Torres

Thanks to 3GuysRC for everything;
George S, John Bonie and Rocco Zoccoli

Thanks,
Nick A, Sonny O, Rich S, Romer, Big Dom, Bernie, GQ Johnny, Detective
Jack, Conde, KING, Kris P, Mike L, Tex, Ryan, Gosch Family, Dave K, Tony
D

Big Thanks to the owner Leisure Hours Hobbies and Raceway, Scott

Thanks to all our Sponsors for your support.

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