When the racing family loses one, we take notice. We will start it off by saying we did not know Shane Krikke. However, many in this small and tight knit sprint car family did. Everyone to a person agreed Shane was one of the most colorful, full of life people in the sprint car world. A fighter from day one. He beat Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in 1998 once already. An Aussie with that typical no hill is too steep attitude that is so damn infectious. An easy smile, quick witted humor and passion second to none for the world of sprint cars were his calling cards. He by all accounts was just this side of walking on water, fronting one of the most popular sprint car teams in the entire country of Australia, while managing to run the Bunbury Toyota dealership as well. Shane was one of us. A Gen-Xer living the dream. All the while, he was hiring top drivers and taking down the biggest races that country has to offer, driver names including Brooke Tatnell, Robbie Farr and Tim Kaeding to name just three. The list goes on. If you listened to anyone talk about Shane Krikke, they immediately smiled as if it was reflex. Shane’s Twitter feed is filled with positivity even before he was notified his cancer had returned and nothing changed throughout the last year or so after he had posted the “We got this” message when he was given the prognosis and the enormity of the battle in front of him. As recently as last month, Shane and Brad Doty had an exchange and that fight and fire was still there in his battle with this hideous disease. We got this, his battle cry.
Over the weekend, the racing world lost Shane Krikke.
Shane, the impact you had on the sport you lived and loved was enormous, but the impact you left with your never ending positivity at a time when no one would have blamed you if had none is even greater.
We did not know Shane, but damn, we sure wish we had the chance.