Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Bruce Brothers Racing - Mid-Winter Update

Originally sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 11:42 PM

If you were paying attention last year, you know that the Commercial Point Grand Prix was the highlight of the season for Henry and Conor (Peter's class wasn't offered). The December issue of National Kart News, the premier karting publication in North America, included a nice article on the CPGP, which featured plenty of pictures of both Henry and Conor. An Adobe Acrobat version of the article is attached. Henry is the yellow No. 27 with a blue suit (big picture on the opening page) and Conor is the black and red No. 7 with a red suit (several pictures beginning with the bottom left on the second page). Both are mentioned in the text.

In addition to the new kart that we acquired for Conor just before Christmas, we now have a place to store it and all the rest of our equipment. Construction was completed recently on our new four-car garage! It's two cars wide and two cars deep with lots of storage space in the 'loft'. The loft even has a hatch and an electric winch for moving things up and down.

Conor has a new kart, but at this time, we are unsure as to how much he is going to be able to use it. His season, if he gets to have one, will most likely be interrupted by a hospital stay this summer. He began to have headaches and reduced mobility in his neck late last year. He has since been diagnosed with a rare congenital spinal cord disorder that will require surgery. The orthopedic specialist that he had been seeing, who just happens to be the team doctor for Team Rahal, referred us to a neurosurgeon at Children's Hospital in Columbus after he discovered a cyst in Conor's spinal cavity. Conor recently completed a series of diagnostic tests (MRIs, x-rays, etc.) of his head and neck area and the neurosurgeon has referred us to a specialist in the Neurosurgery Department at University of Iowa's Children's Hospital of Iowa in Iowa City. Conor's test results have been forwarded to the specialist and we are currently waiting to hear what comes next. The good news is that his condition does not appear to be getting worse and he continues to be a happy, mostly healthy 14 year old. I'm not very good at this, but if you are so inclined, please keep Conor in your thoughts and prayers. We will let you know when we know more.

Bill