Throat cancer nor Covid could keep Scooter Dulin from racing. With limited breathing capacity, Dulin uses a custom-made helmet blower to provide him the air he needs to race an IMCA stock car.
“I had breathing machines and inhalers,” said Dulin, 44, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “My throat shrunk because of radiation treatments. It became smaller because scar tissue built up. My palliative care doctor said I would need help breathing for the rest of my life. I desired to race so badly. I knew I would have to have an air pump in my car.”
Dulin found that a typical helmet blower did not provide him with enough air. He worked with his car builder Jim Williams, of Advantage Chassis in Atkins, Iowa, to craft a solution.
“We found Allstar Performance had a NASCAR Cup Series brake cooler fan with the highest cfm available,” Williams said. “Then, we had to make it fit to the smaller-diameter air hose for Scooter’s helmet. We found CoolShirt made a hose reducer. I welded up a custom bracket for the blower, hose, and reducer and Scooter was good to go.”
Prior to his cancer diagnosis three years ago, Scooter Dulin won 22 features and a championship at Benton County Speedway in Vinton, Iowa. This year marks his first full season back in racing since battling cancer and then Covid. He finished ninth on Sunday, March 20, at Beatrice Speedway in Nebraska. After the 20-lap feature, his wife, Stacy, and granddaughter, Addie, awaited him in his pit with his inhaler and an iced tea.
“I felt warm after the race, but, otherwise, it felt great to do so well in the feature,” said Dulin. “I’ve been enjoying driving since 1997. It’s good to know I can keep on racing. I’m not about to quit any time soon.”
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.
