I started attending Painesville Speedway as a kid in the early 90's.  There was one car in particular i always LOVED and that's the Orange #5 Sportsman of Marty Helm.  I loved this car and even one night he crashed on the front stretch and a piece of the fender was up on the wall and i fished it out!!!

As i got into high school i had class with Adam Pierce and his father Tim raced Figure Eight.  So i sort of weasled my way into helping them out every Saturday night.  A couple years after that Tim and Adam both raced there, in 2001 we were thrown out and raced the first 2 seasons at Lake Erie Speedway.  Then in 2004 one of the toughest things i've ever been put through happened...It was the biggest race at LES, the Street Stock Shootout a 35 Lap Feature.  The race was awesome, Tim had the best race of the year, in a year that was hampered by bad luck.  Tim was able to make a last lap pass for second place which gave us our best finish of the year.  However, we were never able to celebrate the moral victory; after the race Tim had suffered a major heart attack in the pits and passed away that night Friday June 18, 2004. 

The next day after sitting in the garage with Adam and Jenny (Tim's daughter), we decided to goto Painesville Speedway to watch the Figure Eight feature.  The most shocking and memorable sight i will ever rememeber at the track took place.  Every one of the Figure Eight cars had some type of memorial on the side of the car, whether it was a decal or a rough spray painted #66.  This was the only time i've ever cryed at any racetrack.  It was so nice to know that "my hero" had touched so many lives.

Even today at LES there are a couple cars which have his LES number, #88, on the side of their cars.

Tim was and still is my hero, and that's why i ran #66 and still will continue to have that number in whatever i race or demo derby.

Craig