From left, son Dan (Patrick) Ryan Jr., daughter Alison Gilbertson, Dan Ryan and son Jake Ryan talked at Elko. The family, which also includes mother Lisa Ryan, is at the race track every Saturday night from April to October. The Genz-Ryan race team features four drivers, including both Ryan sons.

It's a race against time for family in fast lane
Every Saturday night during the warm-weather months, the racing Ryans converge on Elko Speedway for fun and togetherness while the guy who got it all started battles for his life.

By Melissa Rosenberg, Star Tribune

Last update: August 04, 2007 – 3:00 PM



Saturday night means one thing to the Ryan family: It's race night. In the beginning, Dan and Lisa packed up the kids for Elko Speedway to watch dad race his way through the thunder-car, sportsmen and late-model standings. These days, the kids are grown and race nights are a bit more involved than they used to be. The Ryans have their own race team, which keeps everyone busy, but the family is also helping 46-year-old Dan battle the debilitating effects of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disease that has pushed him from the driver's seat into a wheelchair.


For Alison, 26; Jake, 25; and Dan (Patrick) Ryan Jr., 20, growing up at the track sparked a passion for racing. And just like their parents, that passion -- and the family connection it spawned -- keeps them coming back week after week.

"The very first time we came out here to the track I kicked and screamed the whole way," Alison said. "Now you have to physically pull me to get me away from the track."

Dad passes on his knowledge

After a childhood spent racing bikes and snowmobiles with his brothers and his teen years spent racing motocross, Dan planted the seeds for his racing family in 1991 when he began his career driving race cars.

"I started out at the lowest, entry-level hobby stock class and evolved up to the fastest class here [at Elko], the late-model class," said Dan, who found moderate success on the local race scene. "The opportunity to win [kept me in racing]. I won races, don't get me wrong, I wasn't dominant by any means, but I learned a lot."

Dan retired as a driver in 2003 when he realized that he could help son Jake become more successful on the track than he ever had been. Years after teaching himself how to race, Dan passed that knowledge and experience onto his sons, something he hoped would give Jake and Patrick a leg up on the competition.

"They don't have to go through the painful growing pains of learning like I did," Dan said.

The family turned Dan's passion for racing into a family- run race team, Genz-Ryan. The team features four drivers, including Dan's two sons.

Dan Ryan, 46, has lost the use of his legs because of ALS and gets around Elko Raceway in a motorized scooter. A former driver, Ryan now focuses on the racing careers of sons Jake and Patrick. “Racing obviously takes my mind off of other things and gives me something to look forward to the next weekend,” he said.

Marlin Levison , Star Tribune



"Racing is like our summer cabin, we do this from April to October, every weekend," Lisa said. "I don't know how many of my friends can say they have their kids with him every single weekend throughout the summer, and it's been that way for as long as I can remember."

Jake found his passion for racing at young age.

"I remember sitting in school and drawing pictures of [Dan's race car]," Jake said. "I just thought he was awesome."

Too young to be in the pit legally, he spent his early teens sneaking in to help his dad work on cars.

"[Working in the shop] is where I cut my teeth and I got to do more and more stuff as I got older," Jake said. "When I turned 15, Dad had me come out here with his old car and turn some practice laps ... and I had a pretty good handle on it from just watching all those years."

In his eight-year career, Jake raced at events in Texas, New York, Florida, Missouri and his home base in Elko.

His little brother, Patrick, took a longer route to get behind the wheel. Patrick played football, wrestled and ran track for Lakeville High School. A defensive end, Patrick was a member of the 2003 state championship football team. During his teens, Patrick joined his family at the track for races, but remained a spectator.

"Patrick would come to the races with me and sit in the stands," Lisa said. "He was much more about the social aspect of racing."

But a knee injury during his senior year ended his athletic career, and the youngest Ryan turned his attention to racing.

"I always watched my dad race then I saw my brother race and I always kind of wanted to do it, just to see what it was like," Patrick said. "Two years ago, I ran two races with a thunder-car we borrowed from a friend of ours and ever since then I've had the racing bug."

With two sons on the track, Dan, Lisa and Alison still gather at Elko every Saturday night. The cheering section will get bigger as Alison is expecting her first child with husband Troy Gilbertson in August.

A family pulls together

It is that bond the racing family shares that has helped them face a tougher challenge than any they faced on the racetrack -- Dan was diagnosed in December 2005 with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.

ALS is a fatal, neurological disease caused by the degeneration of nerve cells that control voluntary muscle movement.

In the spring of 2005, Dan experienced foot pain when he stood for extended periods of time. He also felt weakness in his back when standing on concrete. He saw several doctors before a neurologist at the University of Minnesota diagnosed him with ALS in December.

"It's one of those things you just can't ever imagine would happen to you," Lisa said of Dan's diagnosis. "It just shakes your whole world."

Dan retired from racing in 2003 to focus on Jake's racing career, but the diagnosis dashed any hopes he had of getting back behind the wheel of a race car. The disease has rendered Dan's legs useless; he gets around via a motorized scooter. He has rapidly lost strength in his arms and recently began noticing breathing problems at night.

While the cars go round and round on the track, Dan does laps of his own, making countless trips on his scooter up and down the hill that separates the track and the pit at Elko.

With his scooter pressed up against the fence that lines the track, Dan watches his sons practice. As soon as the boys finish their laps, he turns his scooter and heads down into the pit to oversee the work on his cars. Teams of workers are gathered around each car but when the scooter appears, the crowd parts and Dan takes his place at the center of the group to direct changes that need to be made.

As the head of the race team, Dan said the toughest adjustment to the disease has been the loss of doing the hands-on work on the cars.

"If I saw something that needed to be done, I was on the ground doing it, now I can't do that," he said. "I have to holler and scream [for someone else to do it]. And the reality is, I've had to learn to accept the fact that I can't do it."

But despite the changes, Dan says the race team is the one thing that keeps him going, even during his toughest days.

"It's given me one hell of a big diversion," Dan said. "Racing obviously takes my mind off of other things and gives me something to look forward to the next weekend."

Raising awareness of ALS

While Dan focuses on the race team, daughter Alison is focused on raising awareness about her father's disease through the organization "A Race Worth Winning." The nonprofit organization, founded by Allison and several of her friends and extended family, seeks to educate the public about ALS and raise money for ALS-related causes.

"A lot of people don't know what the disease is," Allison said. "... We wanted to raise awareness about the disease and also raise money to support research. We were able to raise $50,000 last year."

For now, Dan focuses on one race at a time, unsure of what the future holds, or how many more race seasons he will get to see.

"The season's going by way fast," he said. "So I can only hope I can get through this season and then I'll hope and pray for another one."


Melissa Rosenberg • mrosenberg@startribune.com

http://www.startribune.com/694/story/1343334.html