Published: August 30, 2008 10:42 pm         

Young race fans get special experience

Brothers serve as Riley ambassadors during Don Schumacher open house

TERRE HAUTE — Seven-year-olds Creed and Christopher Fritz love racing, so when they were asked to serve as honorary guests at the Don Schumacher Racing open house Friday, they were elated.

“They were up at 5 a.m. this morning, dressed and ready to go,” said their mother, Lauri. The family lives in West Terre Haute.

Don Schumacher Racing, located in Brownsburg, celebrated its 10-year anniversary, and for the third year in a row, it hosted an open house benefiting Riley Hospital for Children.

The open house was in conjunction with the start of the 54th U.S. Drag Racing Nationals at O’Reilly Raceway Park, located nearby.

Creed and Christopher served as Riley ambassadors during the open house; the hospital very likely saved their lives.

Born 12 weeks early, triplets Creed, Christopher and Rae-Ann Fritz weighed less than three pounds each. All were placed on oxygen and nasal-gastric feeding tubes in the newborn intensive care unit at Riley. After four months there, the boys were able to go home.

Sadly, Rae-Ann died at 18 weeks.

“After she passed away, I needed to focus on the boys, but my mind was anywhere but there,” Lauri said in an article for the Riley Messenger newsletter. “It was a very rough year.”

Both boys needed physical, speech, developmental and occupational therapy. A different therapist came to the Fritz house every day.

“Taking the boys out was a major undertaking — feeding tubes, apnea monitor, diaper bags and two babies. Unless it was a doctor’s appointment, we didn’t go out,” Lauri said in the Riley newsletter.

Fast forward to August 2008, and the boys rarely stay in. On weekends, they’re often at the racetrack. The boys used to race quarter midget cars, and now they race junior sprints, typically in Linton or Charleston, Ill. They’ve raced for three years.

On Friday, they were learning about an entirely different kind of racing — drag racing. “This is completely new to us,” Lauri Fritz said.

As part of the open house, the boys displayed their own race cars, which feature the Riley Hospital logo.

Creed and Christopher were little celebrities and got introduced on stage during the event. They also got to meet some of the Don Schumacher Racing drivers.

“They love meeting anyone who has a race car,” Lauri Fritz said Friday afternoon while still at the open house.

On Friday night, they planned to attend some of the drag racing events that were part of the U.S. Nationals.

The Don Schumacher open house, attended by about 5,000 people each of the past two years, provides the opportunity for race fans to tour the 100,000-square foot racing facility, enjoy music and lunch, view race and show cars up close and visit with drivers prior to the U.S. Nationals.

The ultimate goal, however, is to generate funds for Indiana’s only comprehensive children’s hospital — Riley Hospital for Children.

Don Schumacher Racing has donated $31,000 to Riley Children’s Foundation in two years thanks to voluntary donations and a race-themed raffle of racing helmets, tool boxes, collectibles and artwork.

Lauri Fritz said her boys are now healthy and doing well, although Christopher still goes to Riley every three to four months for checkups. He has asthma.

The boys are second-graders at West Vigo Elementary.

Lauri Fritz said that without the medical care her boys received at Riley, they might not be alive today.

The family has participated in Riley fund-raisers before. “We are willing to go and do anything they ask us to do. It’s our way of helping repay them and helping to give back a little bit,” she said.

Last summer, the boys met NASCAR champ Jeff Gordon during the annual Jeff Gordon Foundation Bowling Tournament, also a fund-raiser for Riley. “They are NASCAR fans,” Lauri Fritz said.

In a telephone interview Friday, Christopher talked about how he enjoyed being on stage during the open house. He and his brother were introduced because of their involvement with the Riley fund-raiser.

He also liked showing people his own race car during the open house. “It’s exciting. I get to meet some new people,” he said.

The boys were supposed to be racing in Linton Friday, but they decided to catch the excitement at the Nationals. Saturday night, Creed and Christopher were racing in their own junior midgets in Charleston, Ill.

Sue Loughlin can be reached at (812) 231-4235 or sue.loughlin@tribstar.com.