Parents always wonder what path in life their children will take and what influence they will have on them.

In this case, a racing career that was launched at Lernerville Speedway eventually landed in NASCAR.

Travis "T.J." Majors of Wampum won the first bike race he entered at Lernerville. His dad, Rick Majors, raced the 85B Six Cylinder Modified and his mother, Barb, was the assistant publicity director at the track 25 years ago.

T.J. was a typical racing rug rat who had his oval carved in the dirt underneath the stands, where raced Matchbox cars. He surfaced to watch his dad race.

When his mother suggested that he ride a Big Wheel in the bike races, he refused to go on the track unless she bought him a fire suit, painted the Big Wheel like his dad's car and numbered it 85.

It was September and Barb was able to locate a Halloween fire suit, spray paint and an No. 85 on a loaf of bread. Now T.J. was ready.

Not only did he win his first race, he won practically every race he entered. T.J. went through two Hot Wheels a summer, racing around his driveway oval until a wheel eventually fell off.

When the bike races ended and his family moved when Rick's job was transferred to New York, T.J. kept himself from getting bored by discovering online racing.

All was going great until one month she got a telephone bill of $800. T.J.'s time online was cut to a minimum.

One day, he discovered that a person he was racing online was Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Earnhardt was in awe of T.J. because he was the only person he couldn't beat. He told T.J. that he wanted to meet him and they arranged to get together at Watkins Glen.

T.J. told him about his love for any kind of racing and Earnhardt said, "If you feel that way, you need to live in Charlotte and get a job in racing field."

The driver sent his friends to pick up T.J. in 2002 and moved him into one of his homes in North Carolina.

T.J. started out sweeping shops and doing many different jobs, enjoying every minute of being in the racing environment. T.J. has been a spotter for Joe Nemechek, Elliott Sadler, Brad Keselowski and currently is Earnhardt's spotter.

Lernerville will have bike races Saturday. Will there be a new connection to NASCAR to join T.J. and a host of others who once raced their bikes at the track?

In other racing news:

• Jeremiah Shingledecker won the Hillbilly Hustle at West Virginia Motor Speedway. His third victory of the year placed him into the lead of the BRP/Hoosier Tire Modified Tour.

• Roaring Knob Speedway will host the 13th Annual King of the Knob Saturday. The race, sanctioned by the UFo Championship Series, is a 51-lap event. A big field of drivers is expected to compete for the $5,000 first prize.

• John Flinner of Cranberry Township won his third feature of the season in the UMP DIRTcar Super Late Models at Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway recently.

Carol Gamble is the racing columnist for the Butler Eagle.