Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

FIRST PERSON/OPINION

By Roger Lyle

Pete Wysocki, 55, ex-linebacker for the Washington Redskins, father, and bicycle and motorcycle racer, passed away on Saturday June 14 of non-Hodgkins lymphoma cancer.

Mr. Wysocki, (call me Pete) raced his Yamaha motorcycle along with his 35-year-old son Bannon. Pete was a barrel chested man built like an ice cream cone. Pete attended motorcycle racer Tune and Test Days at Summit Point Raceway along with Bannon and always had a smile on his face after some fast laps around the 2-mile road race course. “This racing is so invigorating, I wish more people could experience it. It gives you a whole new outlook on life!” The female EMTs swooned over the famous Washington Redskin player and would not let him alone until he gave them their autograph. He loved people and loved life.

After his first chemotherapy treatment in 2000, Pete was released early by his doctor, went home, then got on his Yamaha and rode 60 miles to Summit Point Raceway where his sportbike club and son were spending the weekend. “I wanted to feel vital,” he told The Washington Post. “I wanted to feel alive. I wanted my son, Bannon, to see me without tubes running into my body. When he saw me, he was very surprised and guys were going, ‘Whoa, what is he doing?’ I’ll tell you what I was doing, I was riding my butt off. It was one of the better days of my life.”

In 2001 Pete emceed a fund raising dinner for the Lombardi Cancer Center and they raised $1 million to battle cancer and try to find the cure for this terrible disease that takes the lives of so many people.