| –

TORONTO, Ontario — The car for the Canadian Heroes Initiative's NASCAR team rolled out earlier this week. It is designed  to honor the country's military, but unless the team can acquire funding, it could be "parked forever," according to officials. 

The team does not have any funding, so to enable this team to participate in Canada's NASCAR races going forward, Canadian Heroes founder Chris Ecklund is turning to his fellow countrymen to raise funds.

Ecklund has sponsored the vehicle for Saturday's NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Car in Toronto, but more help is needed to keep the team going. 

"The response that we have been getting from Canadians is incredible. It has brought it to a level that we have said the soldiers deserve to have their own race team," shared Ecklund, also the president and chief executive officer.

"It would be a shame that this car is only raced once and then parked forever due to a lack of funding," he continued. "That would truly be sad."

Ecklund added: "We therefore are very proud to announce that we will be forming the Canadian Heroes Race Team and will be racing for our troops from this moment onwards. When we are not racing we will be traveling across Canada with the race cars and displaying them to Canadians and corporations, looking for sponsors to help them field a team.

"The response so far from Canadians and especially troops serving in Afghanistan has been overwhelming. Just building this car has been a very emotional experience for all involved, we are hoping a corporate sponsor will fund the car so we can honor our troops," he continued.

Trevor Monaghan, a Canadian himself, will drive the No. 13 Canadian Heroes car, which is inscribed with the phrase "Freedom is Never Free," a lyric from the "Canadian Heroes" song that was released as part of the Canadian Heroes project.

Those interested in helping can contact Ecklund or Kim Lindsay at [email protected] or call (905) 517-9940.

For more information, visit www.canadianheroes.com.