Racing through heartache

By Brian Hilderbrand

Wednesday, April 9, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Tragedy, or the threat of it, has been a part of Doug Herbert’s life for the past two decades.

As a professional drag racer who routinely rockets down the quarter-mile at speeds in excess of 300 miles per hour, Herbert has cheated death on a regular basis during his 18-year career. He also has seen the sport claim two of his colleagues, Darrell Russell and Eric Medlen, in the past four years.

Herbert’s sister, Heather, is in the Army and spent a year in Iraq. Doug Herbert said he watched and listened to news reports of the war every day until his sister returned safely to the States.

But nothing could prepare Herbert for the tragedy that struck his family on the morning of Jan. 26. While Herbert was in Phoenix preparing to test his National Hot Rod Association Top Fuel dragster in preparation for the 2008 season, he received the phone call no parent should ever have to take.

His two sons — Jon, 17, and James, 12 — died instantly when Jon lost control of the car he was driving while trying to pass traffic on a road in Cornelius, N.C., and the car struck another vehicle head-on.

Herbert immediately returned home to North Carolina, but not before giving his team instructions to continue to prepare the dragster for the season opener, which was less than two weeks away.

At the funeral service, Herbert had a message for his sons’ friends. “Do me and your parents a favor: Be careful. Be cautious,” he implored them. “Life is very fragile.”

Jon Herbert was driving 80 mph in a 45 mph zone when he pulled out of his lane and attempted to pass a car. Herbert’s Mazda3 spun out of control and slammed into a Hummer traveling in the opposite direction. In an instant, Doug Herbert’s life was forever changed.

Herbert, 40, said he never considered putting racing on hold while he mourned his two sons and comforted his 10-year-old daughter, Jessica; Herbert was back behind the wheel of his SnaponFranchise.com dragster for the season opener in Pomona, Calif., eight days after burying his boys.

“If it did cross my mind,” he said of quitting, “it just flashed across because racing is what I do and that’s what I like to do. It’s basically my job; it’s my business. That’s what I do.”

He may go about his job the same as always, but Herbert said he now has a different motivation.

“Before, I just wanted to win races because I liked winning,” he said. “Now, I want to win races to help get the message across and to help me feel better about making my daughter proud and what would make my boys proud. Everything changes in a hurry, that’s for sure.”

The message Herbert is trying to get across is the same one he had for Jon’s and James’ friends and classmates at the funeral service:

Slow down and pay attention when you’re behind the wheel of a car.

“Fortunately, I’m in a position where maybe I can use what I do, as far as racing the car, to help promote safe driving with the kids,” he said. “Maybe I can help get a little bit more attention from the teenage drivers as far as trying to get them to realize the consequences of not driving safe. Hopefully I can make a difference.”

With the help of his sons’ classmates, Herbert founded BRAKES (Be Responsible and Keep Everyone Safe), a nonprofit organization designed to educate teenage drivers about safe driving. Herbert hopes that his position as a nine-time NHRA race winner will help make teenagers more receptive to his message.

“I think more than them talking to a teacher or a police officer or some kind of instructor, I think they’ll listen to me more, for one reason, because of the race car thing — that kind of piques their interest,” he said. “And, No. 2, because of the personal tragedy and my personal story that I have, I think they begin to think, ‘Wow, this can really happen to anybody.’

“I know I never thought that something like that would happen to me and I really didn’t realize how big of an issue it was.”

This weekend’s SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals will be Herbert’s fifth race of the season, and he admitted that showing up to the racetrack each week has been an emotional double-edged sword.

“It’s a little bit of therapy, really,” he said. “I like going and I like doing it because my boys always went to the races with me. During summers, they’d spend all summer with me going to the races. Racing was a big part of what we did together.

“On the other hand, I try to move forward and do the best I can and every race I go to, I see new fans that haven’t seen me since the previous year, and they come up and they’re expressing their condolences. It’s kind of like every race is like the first race of the year in that respect. It’s tough, but I’m just getting better at dealing with the reality of it, I guess.”

Herbert has dedicated the season to Jon and James — the “For My Boys” tour, as he calls it. His goal is to win the NHRA Top Fuel championship because “I want to make my boys proud.”

Herbert may not win the championship — he’s ninth in points after four of 24 national events — but he is certain he will be able to make it through the season because of his final conversations with his sons.

“The last thing I said to Jon and James was that I loved them, and the last thing I heard from them was that they loved me,” he said. “That’s the only thing that is going to help me make it through.”