Written by
Curt Cavin
Ryan Hunter-Reay is conflicted regarding the number that should be on his race car in 2013.
As IndyCar’s reigning champion, he’s earned the right to showcase No. 1. His heart tugs at No. 28, which he’s used the past two seasons.
That number represents the 28 million people fighting cancer at any given time. His mother, Lydia, was one of those, losing her life to colon cancer three years ago this month. Racing for Cancer, one of IndyCar’s leading charities, was founded in her honor.
Lydia was more than Hunter-Reay’s mother, she was his lifelong rock and a reminder of the determination life often requires.
She was born in the Toronto suburb of Hamilton, Ontario, but despised the cold weather. At 19, she got a one-way ticket to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to begin anew as a nurse. She never looked back.
“She was strong that way,” Hunter-Reay said. “She could definitely get out on her own and make do, and that’s what she did.”
It was there she met Nick, who owned a stereo equipment business. They married and had the child that was her everything.
Hunter-Reay speaks frequently of his mother, and he knows the nervous state she would have been in as he came from behind to beat Will Power for the IndyCar title Sept. 15 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.
“She was very good at worrying for me,” Hunter-Reay said, laughing. “But when things went well, she just lit up. I can only imagine what she would have been like had she been there to win the championship.”
The tug Hunter-Reay feels about his car number likely will lead Andretti Autosport to incorporate both into the message: One goal, beat cancer.
Lydia would like that.