Vintage modified driver Todd Lapp honored his wife’s courageous battle against cancer with his car’s colors and number — and a win last Saturday night. The victory occurred during the Outlaw Vintage Racing Series event at Grandview Speedway in Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania.
“[My wife, Liz,] was undergoing treatment and I called her to ask her to pick a number for our car,” Lapp, of Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, said. “She chose ‘923,’ which is our anniversary date.”
The Lapps have been married for five years. Last year, Liz woke up with a rash. She went to the doctors. They diagnosed her with stage IV metastatic breast cancer. She underwent radiation, chemotherapy, and a double mastectomy. When the racing community found out, they showed the Lapps their support.
“The racing family is second to none,” said Lapp. “People reached out to help her. When she finished her treatment, they organized a parade for her, complete with friends, racers, the fire department, and the police department. As of right now, everything is looking good, thank God.”
Liz Lapp has begun to once again attend the races. However, Todd Lapp hopes to bring awareness to cancer with his car. The car has large ribbons on the rear quarter panels. Within those ribbons contain smaller colored ribbons for various kinds of cancer. Names of family and friends who have battled the disease adorn the car in the same color as the ribbon indicating the type of cancer they had endured.
Last Saturday, the track chose Lapp’s car as one of the four lined up at entry gate. He and his sister, Denise Hall, whom drives the car in the vintage sportsman class, stood by the car to talk with arriving fans.
“The mission of my car is to let people know that if you are in a battle with cancer, you are not alone,” said Lapp. “Reach out and talk to people. You will see that there is support for you.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
