Sprint car driver Josh Burton died in 2013. Ten years later, his mom had one dying wish
Darlene Burton knew she was dying as the end of March neared, but she needed just a little more time. She wasn't asking for much, just 57 more days. Just enough time to be able to sit trackside at the most important race of her life. The Josh Burton Memorial Race.
Ever since that horrific night in May 2013 when her 22-year-old son, sprint car driver Josh Burton, died in a crash at Bloomington Speedway, it had been Darlene's mission to make the 10th anniversary of his memorial race the biggest one yet.
As she grew weaker inside the hospital, Darlene would muster up the strength to talk about the upcoming race. She would lie in the bed, her eyes sparkling through the misery of bladder cancer, with all sorts of plans for that day.
She wanted this year's race to be something so tremendous, so amazing that it would pack Bloomington Speedway's stands and go down in history.
"She would tell me over and over, 'I just want to make it to the race,'" said Darlene's daughter and Josh's sister, Brandi Burton. "'I have to make it to the race.'"
Darlene Burton died March 30 at the age of 56 -- 57 days before her son's memorial race.
But before she died, Darlene's family made her a promise. They would do everything in their power to make her dying wish come true -- the 10th anniversary of the race would be the biggest one yet. Her family also promised Darlene that they would never let the world forget about Josh.
"It was very important to her," Brandi said, "that her son's legacy was carried on."
'This was the fast life that he sought'
Josh Burton was a charmer at Bloomington Speedway, a handsome, blond-haired, kind-hearted driver everybody loved. Bloomington was his home track and Josh was kind of a rock star there.
He was the driver who could be spotted before races wearing fluorescent green or neon pink socks with slides, welcoming all the fans with a smile. He reveled in the competition and speed and, sometimes, Josh couldn't believe himself that he was really doing what he was doing.
"Josh loved racing so much. He was fearless, I mean absolutely fearless," said his sister, Brandi. "I would say he was born to be a racer. He was fascinated by racing since he was a baby."
Growing up, their parents, Darlene and Jerry Burton, would take Josh, Brandi and their siblings to the speedway on the weekends. They would watch as those brightly-painted cars whizzed around the track. It was pure magic for Josh and he loved everything about it.
Josh had always been a daredevil. Before he was 3, he was riding a bike without training wheels, Brandi said, maneuvering up and down hills and ramps.
Jerry saw his son's racing spirit and got him a four wheeler, which Josh was competing in by the age of 5. By 7, he had moved up to go-carts, then street stock cars at 13. And then when his talents and skills as a race driver were undeniable, Josh stepped into a sprint car at 19.
As Josh's racing career took off, he became known as the Wheelman. Eleven months before he died, Josh raced to the first victory of his rookie season at Lincoln Park Speedway in Putnamville on the non-winged sprint car circuit.
"For a few beautiful moments, after he climbed out from his car and stepped to the dirt track below, Burton found what he had been chasing," Mike Miller wrote in The Herald-Times after Burton's death. "This was the feeling that causes young men to ignore the risks and inherent danger of the sport. This was the fast life that he sought."
'You need to get down here right now'
The day before Josh raced in that fatal crash at Bloomington Speedway May 24, 2013, the team had put new parts on his car. "They were really excited to get out there and get it done," said Brandi. "They were really optimistic he was going to end up at the front."
But during the heat race before the main event, Josh's car flipped. He was OK but he needed his car to be OK, too. He drove back to the pits where he and his team worked until Josh had to go back out for the sprint car B-Main race.
"On the Friday night of Memorial Day weekend at Bloomington Speedway, The Wheelman climbed into his machine," Miller wrote, "and pointed it toward his final laps."
As Josh approached Turn 1, the right front wheel on his vehicle snapped off, sending his car into a barrel roll. When Josh's car flipped and landed on its side, another car ran into the top of his roll cage and hit him in the helmet, said Brandi.
No one at Bloomington Speedway knew in those moments after the crash exactly how bad this was, but they knew it wasn't good.
Jerry Burton was at the race working on the crew. He was there for every dreadful second of his son's crash. Darlene got the call that Josh had been in an accident and made it to the speedway seven minutes later. She watched as paramedics loaded her son into the ambulance and cried as she rode with him to the hospital.
Brandi got the call at 2:30 a.m. on May 25. "Josh was in a bad accident, the car flipped," her parents told her. "You need to get down here right now."
As Brandi walked frantically into the hospital in the wee hours of that morning, she saw the entire lobby filled with people from the track -- friends, fellow racers, fans, track officials, all showing their support as they waited for news on Josh's condition.
Brandi walked into her brother's room, she held his hand and told him she loved him. Then she heard the doctor's words: "He's not going to come back from this." The injury had caused Josh's brain to swell and the swelling crushed his brain stem. Josh was declared brain dead.
The family took him off life support the morning after the race. But before they did, all those people from the lobby filed in to tell Josh goodbye, to say goodbye to their rock star of Bloomington Speedway.
“It’s an ugly part of the sport,” Kris Kirchner, Bloomington Speedway general manager told The Herald-Times after Josh died. “They have all the safety equipment and do everything they can in their power to protect themselves. Sometimes bad things happen and you don’t know why."
She wanted to be there to see it
As the years passed after Josh's death, Darlene fought to improve safety for drivers and "was a huge advocate for halo bars on sprint cars to save lives," said Brittany Miracle, Josh's cousin. The "halo" is a curved bar installed on race cars to protect the driver's head, but is not mandatory in sprint cars.
Darlene would tell anyone who would listen how important that safety device was and that if Josh had had one on his car in 2013, it might have saved his life.
After Josh died, Darlene and Jerry "vowed to keep his legacy alive by racing his No. 4 car for 10 years," said Miracle. And Darlene desperately wanted to be there this year to see her son's No. 4 car on the track, maybe for the last time.
The bladder cancer attacked Darlene's body in May 2022, just before the ninth annual Josh Burton Memorial Race, which was cancelled due to weather and rescheduled for September. The family was hopeful, by then, the cancer would be mostly behind Darlene.
"We were really optimistic," said Brandi, "because the doctors were saying, 'If you're going to get cancer, this is not one of the worst ones to get."
But as her son's memorial race approached, four months after her diagnosis, Darlene was in a lot of pain, it was tough for her to move around and she was so tired.
"But she had to be at that race," said Brandi. "She wouldn't dare miss it." Darlene sat in a chair trackside at Bloomington Speedway in September and watched the last race she would see in memory of her son.
As her life was ending in March, Darlene, who had been the main organizer of the race, made sure her family knew what she wanted the 10th anniversary race to be like. Just in case she didn't make it 57 more days.
Everything a little bit bigger and better
"She wanted to do everything a little bit bigger and better for this one," said Brandi. "She wanted to collect more money for the drivers, have more experiences for the fans, get face painters for the kids."
The race was started, after all, not only to carry on Josh's legacy, but as a way to give back to the people who were there for the Burtons after his death, the drivers, fans, Bloomington Speedway and all the dirt tracks around Indiana and beyond.
Since the first Josh Burton Memorial in 2014, the race has grown bigger each year. In 2022, more than 40 cars competed and the stands were packed.
Brandi said she hopes her mother's dying wish comes true May 26 and Josh's race is something Bloomington Speedway has never seen.
Brandi said goodbye to her brother 10 years ago. And she said goodbye to her mother in March. "My poor family, we've know some tragedy," she said. "But we are getting though it.
"This race is always a big part of helping us heal."
For more information on the Josh Burton Memorial Race, to buy tickets or make donations, visit Josh Burton Racing on Facebook.
Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: dbenbow@indystar.com.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Sprint car driver Josh Burton died in 2013 at Bloomington Speedway
