Father carries on racing legacy of his late son (cont'd)

Chuck's idea of handing it was to sell the family printing business, sell the house and "go hide in the hills" of rural Nevada.

"I didn't want to see anyone," he said to me. "I didn't want to talk to anyone. You remember how it was. I couldn't even talk to you and Benny [Parsons].

"But when I told Barbara I didn't want the business anymore, she said, 'Let me take it over.'"

And she did. She has tripled the number of employees and Western Mailing Services is racing along just fine, thank you.

"She's a very wonderful woman," Chuck said. "She was much stronger through all of this than I was. There is something marvelous about women, the way they manage that type of situation. I really don't know what it is."

It wasn't easy for Barbara. I can tell you first hand, it was, and at times still is, extremely difficult for Chuck.

"Even though I knew he was dead, I would sit in my chair, waiting for him to come up the walk and into the house and say 'Hi dad!' in that familiar voice of his," Chuck said. "The pressure on me just kept building and building. Just two years ago I turned to Barbara and finally said, 'He's not coming home.' That lifted a little bit of the weight off of my shoulders."

While Barbara went to work -- "She's works way too hard," Chuck said -- Chuck went racing.

"She let me do whatever I wanted," he said. "Buy another racecar. Do this or that. She said go ahead."

Most fathers and sons are close. That's the way it is suppose to be. It seems to me that racing fathers and their racing sons are even closer. In my opinion, Chuck and Chris were among the closest.

"You're just sitting there, dreaming your dream," Chuck said. "He was so good at everything he did."

Then he was gone.

Something had to be done. So Chuck, came out of retirement and took over the wheel, and went back to the bullring, in his mid-50s (he is 62 now). He went racing. In 2003 he won the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring track championship driving the same No. 70 that Chris drove. He finally retired after driving 12 Super Late Model races in 2005.

"I did it for Chris," he said. "It was his car, his track. I was just doing it because he wasn't here to do it."

Chuck and Barbara never stop thinking about Chris.

"There are those moments ... driving down the highway and just seeing the 70 mph sign, or just seeing the number 70 on the wall," Chuck said. "Those can be tough moments."

With Chuck retired, again, it looked like the Trickle racing family might be finished. Not so fast.

Chuck and Barbara have raised their daughter's 6-year-old son since birth. He is named for his uncle, Christopher Charles. They are also raising a 3-year-old grandson, Tommy.

Young Chris calls Chuck "dad," and to hear this proud "dad" tell the story, Chris is following in the family tire tracks.

"I know you didn't call to hear me brag about my grandson, but Bill, he's really got it," Chuck said to me.

Now that's the Chuck Trickle I remember. Bubbling with enthusiasm. Brimming with family pride. Believe me when I tell you, it has never been about Chuck. It has always been about someone else. And now, that someone is 6-year-old Chris, out there on the track, racing go-karts, charging from 30th to fifth in the final the other day at Buffalo Bills near State Line, Nev. He passed 20 karts and set the second- and fourth-fastest times in the main.

"He's a little aggressive out there, a little greedy. You can see that out there on the track. He likes to rub a little in the turns," Chuck said with a snicker. (Continued)