Where is ... Jeff Purvis? (cont'd)

Purvis grieves for his children with Susan: Thomas and Clay.

"That's an eye-opener right there," Purvis said, the emotion evident in his voice. "That changes more than pretty much anything that's ever happened to me. ... I feel good [physically], but I hurt for my boys, losing their mother."

Clay has a dirt car, and is ready and raring to go racing. His dad, however, isn't quite so sure, not because of the life-threatening accidents in which he's been involved, but because of the tremendous financial burden racing requires.

Purvis knows. He's been there. And he doesn't want Clay to go through the hard times that he's been through.

"It really has nothing to do with injuries," Purvis said. "There were times when I dirt raced, I struggled. There were times I couldn't pay my tire bill. James came along and started helping me. Well ... heck ... I had an eight- or nine-month racing season, and two or three months into it, I'd already gone through that money. They say speed costs money ... how fast do you want to go? I wanted to go faster than everybody.

"If they had a new part out, I had to have it. I just remember those times when it was a serious struggle. I know a better way now. He can come out here [to Purvis' business] and work, and have a good and successful life if everything goes well. That part is what worries me more than anything. It's easy to remember the good times, but those bad times were there as much as the good times."

Will Purvis ever race again? It's a question Purvis has been asked many times in recent months, and it's a good one. Maybe. Maybe not. Only time will tell. It's a fever that Purvis caught long ago, and it doesn't appear to have left him yet.

"Would it take very much to talk me into doing it? None whatsoever," Purvis concluded. "I probably would like to do it more now than ever. I've situated myself better for it now than I was then ... as far as personally, financially ... whatever."