{"id":16247,"date":"2013-03-11T23:45:35","date_gmt":"2013-03-11T23:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/?p=16247"},"modified":"2013-03-12T03:55:17","modified_gmt":"2013-03-12T03:55:17","slug":"everyday-hero-racing-to-help-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/front-page-news\/everyday-hero-racing-to-help-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyday Hero: Racing to Help Children"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/20130311-235415.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/20130311-235415.jpg\" alt=\"20130311-235415.jpg\" class=\"alignleft size-full\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>BayNews 9 &#8211; POLK COUNTY &#8212; Every day, a Polk County teen gets to live his dream, racing trucks against big competition all across the country.<\/p>\n<p>Dylan Martin also races for another reason &#8211; to make sure other children can live out their dream, regardless of disability or age.<\/p>\n<p>The 15-year-old Lakeland boy drives the No. 7 Pro Truck Series truck in most races.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was running quarter midgets for the national circuit,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I did that for three years. Then, when I turned 12 or 13, I jumped into a truck.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He often meets with children to show them they can achive their goals by working hard. He recently went to the Sunshine Foundation&#8217;s Dream Village in Davenport, where he showed his vehicle and helmet and talked about good driving.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>His audience, all serious, chronically ill, physically challenged or abused children, were enthusiastic.<\/p>\n<p>Dylan has also spent time at the Shriner&#8217;s Hospital and other destinations to visit, talk about racing and give them an up-close look at his favorite sport.<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s also the spokesperson for T.A.D.D. &#8211; Teens Against Distracted Driving. His message includes warnings about cell phone, texting while driving and car seats.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You guys are still young,&#8221; he told the crowd. &#8220;When I was young, I didn&#8217;t like to sit in car seats, either. You guys are little. You are fragile. So you must keep sitting in car seats.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dylan dreams to someday race on the NASCAR circuit.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, his goal is rather ordinary.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The day I turn 16, I&#8217;m going to get my license. I hope I don&#8217;t scare the instructor or something like that,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on Dylan, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/dylanmartinracing.com\/about-dylan\/\" target=\"_blank\">Dylan Martin Racing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BayNews 9 &#8211; POLK COUNTY &#8212; Every day, a Polk County teen gets to live his dream, racing trucks against big competition all across the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,3,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-front-page-news","category-racing-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16247"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16265,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16247\/revisions\/16265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}