// MotorSportsNews.Net(work)

The loss of a loved one can bring the best and the worst out of someone, especially when that loved is as much of a presence as Bobby Hamilton was. Hamilton was never what one would call a superstar, but he did finish his Sprint Cup career with four wins and one top-10 finish in the points. He was the first driver to win in the #43 STP car after Richard Petty retired and won a Craftsman Truck Series championship in 2004, driving for and owning his own multi-truck team.

Hamilton shocked the racing world in March 2006, when he announced that he was stepping out of his truck because he had head and neck cancer. At the press conference at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Hamilton immediately poised himself as being a survivor of the illness and vowed that he would be back in the truck as soon as he could. Unfortunately, head and neck cancer claimed Bobby Hamilton’s life in January 2007.

Lori Hamilton had only recently married Bobby and was among the surprised when his cancer developed. As soon as he made his announcement, the Hamilton’s took major steps toward making sure that others did not end up in the same situation.

“As soon as we learned Bobby had cancer, we poured ourselves into research and even had open houses for screenings at Bobby Hamilton Racing,” Lori Hamilton said at a free head and neck cancer screening session at Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta on April 21st. Hamilton was named National Spokesperson for Head and Neck Cancer Week, which was April 21st-27th.

The Yul Brynner Head and Neck Cancer Foundation’s staff has started doing free screenings at race tracks. Tobacco use and alcohol are leading causes of head and neck cancer and are widely used at race tracks. Hamilton hopes that Bobby’s story will help lead fans to get screened, because early detection is the best defense against the disease. They will be doing screenings during the fall race weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Within the NASCAR garage, Hamilton says they sometimes have had to have been forceful about getting people to get screened.

“We’ve been in the garage and have had to go up to guys, pull them aside, and tell them they are getting screened,” Hamilton said, laughing.

Hamilton hopes that the success she has seen come out of Bobby’s death on the cancer front, will replicate itself within Bobby’s truck teams. In Nashville, Dennis Setzer drove the #18 Bobby Hamilton Racing Dodge to victory at the team’s home track. The team has a new mechanical and financial partnership, which is good news, considering the team’s struggles in the immediate wake of Bobby’s death.

In the middle of both stories of success and inspiration is Lori Hamilton. She most definitely has helped make something good come out of something bad and the bad certainly has brought the best out of her.