Brett Anderson had seen victory lane, but never through the blur of such tired eyes. He’d lifted trophies, but never with arms so heavy that he wondered how they would steer his race car through the final turns.
Never had a victory seemed so much like triumph before, not even the ones that came after Anderson broke his neck in a racing accident back in 2005.
“I could hardly get out of the car,” Anderson said, recalling the exhaustion that set in over the course of the POWRi Midget Racing Series season opener at Macon (Ill.) Speedway on April 26. “I had a ways to go as far as getting back into shape — I probably still do — but it was one of the best feelings I’d ever had.”
The feelings had been so decidedly different six months earlier when Anderson, 23, and less than a year removed from his first POWRi victory, had been diagnosed with cancer after suffering pain in his chest and lower abdomen. Initially, doctors found a mass about the size of a football pressing against his rib cage, and their early diagnosis of lymphoma was dire.
“It was the worst night of my life,” he said.
A later battery of tests revealed that Anderson was suffering from testicular cancer, which had in turn caused masses near his lymph nodes.
The prognosis improved dramatically for Anderson, but treatment included surgery followed by chemotherapy and radiation.
Racing became of little relevance, and Anderson and his family decided to put the team on the back burner, selling most of the equipment.
“We thought it would be better to get through all (the medical issues),” he said. “We didn’t think we would be racing this year.”
His best friends shaved their heads, so Anderson would feel better when the chemotherapy caused his hair to fall out.
“I guess they didn’t want me to feel like an idiot walking around,” he laughed.
But Anderson made dramatic improvements after his October diagnosis and the closer the 2008 season got, the more it appeared as if the 2004 National Midget Rookie of the Year would be able to race — if he had the equipment to do it in.
After the Chili Bowl in January, things began coming together. He reached a deal for Fontana Automotive engine support and enough other sponsors came on board to get things going. His father even found a deal on a hauler.
“Everything couldn’t have come together any better,” Anderson said. “We got it together and went to Macon thinking that we’d just be happy to make the show.”
A strong field included Jerry Coons, Jr., who is among the top midget drivers in the country, and Bubba Altig, whose strong run in the 2007 Chili Bowl thrust him onto the national scene.
Anderson, whose first POWRi victory came last June at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Ill., outran Coons in their heat, and then overcame Altig to take the feature victory on the Macon fifth-mile dirt track.
Anderson’s mother, Cindy, recalled an emotional scene in victory lane.
“It was very emotional, and there were some tears,” she said. “Mine.”
Anderson said the victory, which has been followed by a couple of frustrating finishes due to equipment failures, made the team reassess its goals for the 2008 season.
“We’re going to run for the (POWRi) championship this year. We’re definitely going to try to run all of those races,” he said. “When we started, that’s not something we’d thought about.”
Anderson wants to make his Chili Bowl debut in January. Why not? Nothing seems impossible anymore.
At 23, cancer had never been something considered by Anderson, whose admitted “white-coat” fear, which included doctors and dentists, caused him to put off getting a checkup despite suffering occasional pain in his lower abdomen over the past couple of years.
“I’d gotten hit in a couple of races, so I never really thought about it being anything other than that,” he said.
It was only when the mass in Anderson’s chest began to press painfully against his ribs did he make a doctor’s appointment.
That appointment proved to be just in time as doctors were able to treat the cancer and get Anderson back behind the wheel sooner than even he anticipated.
Anderson still has a touch of “white-coat” fear, but has seen plenty of doctor’s appointments since October and changed his ideas about checkups.
“If anybody has any doubts at all, I’d tell them to go get it checked out,” he said.