INDIANAPOLIS — Katie and Morgan Lucas, along with Lucas Oil Products, will be hosting the 13^th Annual Lucas Oil Eric Medlen Memorial Golf Tournament on Sept. 2 at Eagle Creek Golf Course.

The annual golf tournament honors the late NHRA Funny Car driver Eric Medlen, and all money raised from the charity event will go towards helping the children of Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital at Ascension St. Vincent.

Medlen was a talented, charismatic and aspiring young Funny Car driver when his life was tragically cut short at 33 due to fatal injuries suffered from a crash during testing. More than just a race car driver, Medlen possessed various talents. He was a champion calf roper with the goal of going pro when he was in high school. Medlen was also an accomplished designer and painter and had a passion for building custom motorcycles when he wasn’t racing. But, above all, Medlen was a genuinely kind human being. The type of person to take time out of their day just to make someone smile, whether it’s at the office or the race track.

Before his driving career, Medlen was a race mechanic for John Force Racing for eight years until getting the call to replace his former teammate. Medlen captured his first win during his rookie season and collected six wins throughout his career. Entering the 2007 race season, Medlen had never finished outside the top-five in the championship points and had just matched a career-best fourth-place finish in POWERade standings. Unfortunately, he suffered severe head injuries during a test session at Gainesville Raceway in 2007 that left him on life support.

Medlen’s death was the first NHRA fatality since 2004, and served as a catalyst for change that led his team John Force Racing to develop the “Eric Medlen Chassis,” the first significant redesign of the Funny Car in 30 years. Missed by fans and those close to him, Medlen’s legacy lives on today through Sonoma Raceway’s ice cream social, the NHRA’s new safety requirement calling for padded roll bars, John Force Racing’s “Eric Medlen Chassis,” the Lucas Oil charity golf tournament and race fans across the globe.

“Eric left our sport with such a powerful legacy, and now it’s our job to keep his good work going,” stated Katie and Morgan Lucas. “We are honored to be hosting this year’s charity event and truly humbled by the generous support from our incredible golfers, sponsors and corporate partners. With their generosity, we have raised over $700,000 for PMCH and helped fund the St. Vincent House. We’re excited to see some familiar faces and a few new ones at the golf course this year as we celebrate Eric’s life.”