Helmets and hoods: NASCAR drivers forge tie with Humboldt Broncos
Alex Tagliani is a proud family man. His Instagram and Twitter feeds are dotted with shots from home and the three-year-old daughter he dotes on.
“I still kiss my dad on the cheek,” says Tagliani, who in his public life is one of Canada’s better-known race car drivers. “When you’re like this, you can’t not be affected by stuff like this.”
When he says “stuff like this,” Tagliani — in Saskatoon for this week’s NASCAR Pinty’s Series stop — means the April crash that killed 16 people on the Humboldt Broncos’ bus.
It shook him, he says. He looked for something, anything, he could do, which led him to friend and artist Dustin Hudema. They designed a Broncos-themed helmet, complete with logo and team photos. The initial plan was to auction the helmet after he’d worn it in a race, with proceeds going to the Broncos, but the team has now indicated that they’d like to keep it as a memento.
And he’s glad to do that, after he wears it one more time today.
Helmets, Tagliani says, are a driver’s best outlet for expression. His large basement memorabilia display — a mini museum, of sorts — includes a sizable collection of helmets, ones he’s worn, and others he’s traded for with rival drivers.
He plans to make a replica of that Broncos helmet, and keep it in his collection.
“The helmet is the only thing that belongs (to a race car driver) — the car is branded with sponsorship logos, the suit and everything,” Tagliani said Tuesday morning at Saskatoon’s Wyant Group Raceway. “The helmet is a special design you have. It’s your thing. Normally, I have three roses, because my daughter is Eva-rose, and I put her name with her birthday on it. The helmets, they mean something to me, and I do it for a special meaning — and this one, obviously, has that meaning.”
Tagliani’s car is No. 18. When he hits the track in Saskatoon on Wednesday, he’ll carry Logan Hunter’s name on the rear deck lid, which is where Tagliani’s name usually goes. Hunter wore No. 18 for the Broncos, and died in the crash.
Tagliani will share the track, perhaps scraping a little paint, with fellow veteran DJ Kennington. The latter — an Ontario highways worker and former junior hockey player — was, like Tagliani, shaken by the images of that demolished bus splayed out in a Saskatchewan ditch.
He was at a race in Bristol, Tenn. when the crash happened, and he called team owner Marty Gaunt. They had no hood sponsorship for that Bristol race, so they placed a Broncos logo there, instead.
“It just came to me,” Kennington said Tuesday. “Everybody was doing the sticks out, and wearing the jersey, and I was like, ‘Man, what can I do? Is there something I can do?’ I’m just a fortunate person, to have had that platform, to be able to put the name on the hood.”
The tragedy received prominent mention on the broadcast, and Kennington talks about pit crews walking past, taking pictures with the hood, musing about what they, personally, could do to help.
After the race, they put the hood up for auction, and on Monday, Kennington went to Humboldt with $15,000 for the team. He met with Broncos family members, had a barbecue with the community, displayed his race car.
“We weren’t at the actual site, but driving down there, thinking to yourself (about) being a guy that’s been on the bus, talking with your buddies and having fun, and something like that happens,” Kennington said Tuesday.
“It’s a life-changer, but it’s a reality check, too. It makes you realize how lucky you are. Hopefully you live every minute to the fullest, because you just never know what’s going to happen next.”
Tagliani has lived through his own motor-borne tragedy. His friend and teammate Dan Wheldon died after a collision at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2011.
It’s interesting, he says, to see how different people handle the grief process. He, personally, doesn’t talk much about that day with fellow drivers, even though he thinks of it often.
“I don’t bring up the subject. I hate talking about tragedy,” Tagliani said.
“As racers, we’ve been part of that. My teammate, Dan Wheldon, lost his life on race weekend and I still have thoughts about him and the things we went through as teammates — the way it happened, and what if, and what if, and what if. I don’t speak about that to race car drivers. I talk about experiences, but I don’t bring up the incident. I’m sure everybody has his own way of feeling about this situation.
“Every person is different; we need all kinds of people to make the world go around. And you are affected in a very different way, depending on who you are.
“There’s tragedy that’s gone on in the world that hasn’t affected me as much. But this one (with the Broncos) ... as soon as you put the family and the kids into it, it changes the whole thing for me.”
Which is why he has the helmet, and Kennington the hood.
Both men say this stop in Saskatoon is a fitting and perfect thing, given its proximity to Humboldt, and the feelings that have erupted since the night so many lives turned upside down.
“I have a three-year-old. I’ve really been enjoying life with her,” Tagliani said. “There’s nothing more important than my family, and her. And when this happens ...
“You cannot feel what they felt
Hopefully you live every minute to the fullest, because you just never know what’s going to happen next.
unless it happens to you. The imagination doesn’t go that far. The helmet is such a small piece of recognition, and I’m just proud they saw something bigger and it will be there forever, connected with the players.”