FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: This has been a very hard week for the family and friends of Chad Sisler and his wife Shiloh Salopek Sisler of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. Our sympathy, tears, and hearts are with you. Chad and Shiloh were living their dream. Back in August 2008, Chad hand-delivered his check for the Motorcycle Xcitement Racing School to me in Hagerstown, Maryland. He worked just across the street at Hoffman Chevrolet as a fully certified ASE Technician. Nice guy. He was drag racing a 1000 hp Camaro and needed some more excitement in his life! Chad graduated the racing school on Sept. 4, 2008, with his Kawasaki ZX6R with all the right equipment. He wanted to be a motorcycle road racer. He had done some track days with fiancee’ Shiloh, his brother Brett and father Harold helping in the pits. This year they went racing in April at Summit Point. Chad and Shiloh were married on May 23 in Martinsburg, West Virginia. They honeymooned in Las Vegas and attended the World Superbike Race at Miller Motorsports Park and stayed to get their hero Ben Spies’ autograph. Chad and Shiloh were living the dream! Next week it was Chad’s turn to race. CHAD WAS A RACER! Al Wilcox and I had a nice chat with the happy newlyweds as they were heading to their pit after signing up for his WERA races. During the second practice session Chad lost his life on June 7 at Summit Point Raceway when he got into a vicious tankslapper coming out of Turn 9 and speed wobbled all the way to the bridge. The bike veered right into the tires and Chad impacted something hard. Poor Shiloh witnessed the accident and has this terrible image haunting her. Her first true love of her life has gone to heaven. Godspeed Chad Sisler. The family thanks everyone who was there that day looking out for the racers. What can we do to remember Chad Sisler? Shiloh and Chad’s family requests donations to be made to the Roadracing World Action Fund in memory of Chad Sisler ~http://actionfund.roadracingworld.com~ to help protect our racers and maybe prevent another terrible tragedy from happening. The Roadracing World Action Fund is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization set up by racers for racers to provide education to racers, racetracks, and anybody who will listen, on how to make these tracks safer. We need to move the walls back, improve pavement surface, increase run-off, and use soft barriers. One innovative safety item for motorcycle racers is called Airfence Safety Systems of Australia. Airfence is an inflatable soft barrier that is placed in front of hard walls and objects at tracks. If a racer loses control and impacts the soft barrier, the injuries are not as severe as hitting a hard wall. Many racers have walked away from some of these bad crashes thanks to The Action Fund. The testimonials and photos are on the site. Started in 2001 by racer and editor John Ulrich, The Roadracing World Action Fund has raised over $600,000 and purchased much of the Airfence that has been deployed at motorcycle races all over the U.S.A. Your donations can help save our racers. For a motorcycle rider and racer this is better than any paper insurance. Check the price of catastrophic emergency care. I couldn’t ever pay it off and you probably couldn’t either. You can write a healthy tax-deductible check to The Action Fund for your benefit, or write a check to Uncle Sam to fund the things we don’t need. Roger Lyle Hagerstown, West Virginia www.MotorcycleXcitement.com 301-933-2599