Direct Shopping Network
is proud to sponsor Eric Hardin and the #18 Car

Direct Shopping Network is excited about the addition of our newest DSN family member, Eric Hardin who will be racing the #18 car in the NASCAR West Series was a great find for DSN. Eric is an up and coming driver, who will be driving the the #18 car displaying the DSN colors. Around the studio we just call it the "18 Karat Kar".

Eric seemed destined from birth to enjoy and excel at motor sports, but at age 12, cancer threatened to cut short his promising life. The disease ultimately claimed half of one leg, but that hasn't kept him from racing and winning; if anything, it has given him a greater determination to succeed. Eric's family has been in the automotive business for over 45 years. "I grew up around cars and boats," he says. "I was raised in the shop, learning about cars and it was always something I loved." Motor vehicles weren't just the Hardins' business - they were a way of life.

Summer meant powerboats and jet skis on the river. In winter the family rode dirt bikes in the desert. Then the pain started in young Eric's leg; the first sign of a disease that could have ended his life, but just merely ended up changing it forever. The diagnosis sounded grim: osteosarcoma bone cancer. Chemotherapy began immediately, but that alone couldn't save him. After six months, a surgical team amputated Hardin's right leg just through the knee. Even that didn't mark the end of his medical ordeal. The cancer was also in Hardin's lungs. Another six months of chemotherapy lay ahead, after which he would face another major procedure: his lungs would be taken out of his chest and the cancerous tissue removed by hand.

Eric's older brother and sister pooled their resources to give their little brother a gift they knew would lift his spirits and perhaps help take his mind off the impending operation: a brand...new dirt bike. Hardin was eager to put the bike to the test, but the chemotherapy had weakened him. Landing what should have been a routine jump; Hardin broke his femur and found himself facing another major operation.

Doctors installed an 8…inch metal plate and delayed his cancer surgery while he healed. "That's when my parents decided that dirt bikes weren't for me anymore," Hardin says with a laugh.

The final operation was a success, and soon Hardin was ready to plunge back into the life of a normal teenage boy, despite no longer being able to pursue some of his favorite sports. "Losing my leg didn't really faze me that much, I just wanted to get it over with," Hardin says. "The chemotherapy and being sick was the real drag of it. From eighth grade to my freshman year in high school, approximately 1...1/2 years, I had to endure many treatments. Once that was over, I was; just so relieved to have it all behind me that, now, I try not to let little things bother me."

A few months after his lung surgery, Eric paid $300 for a used GMC Sonoma. He intended it as transportation to and from school but soon, inspired by his older brother Jared; he would take on a more ambitious goal. Eric and Jared wanted to enter the truck into off-road racing. Soon, they had lined up their first sponsor: Dennis Hardin, their father. Dennis realized the potential advertising value of the endeavor. More importantly on a personal level, he saw a way to involve the whole family in working toward a common goal. Eric and Jared worked hard that summer, devoting whatever free time they had to transforming that beat...up GMC Sonoma into what would become known as "The White Rocket."

"I went to a lot of the races and looked at all the other trucks and what we were going to be racing against, and what it was going to take to be competitive," Jared explains. "It was the lowest truck class you could be in, bone…stock. We basically; just put a roll cage in it and “beefed it up”. We didn't know what we were doing, and it wasn't the prettiest thing, but it was fun." Luckily, Team Hardin entered an MDR (Mojave Desert Racing) race rather than a car show, and the result was a first…place finish. The Hardins campaigned their first full season in 1999 in a factory…engineered, MacPherson… built; V6...powered GMC Sonoma and took first place in their class at the Barstow, California SCORE race. The artificial leg never became an issue.

"I was driving the whole thing with; just one foot and I kept my prosthetic tucked under the seat," Eric says. "I don't think a lot of people knew about my leg. I never really broadcast it because I was already young as it was and I didn't want people to think I had something else going against me. And once you're as competitive as the other racers then it doesn't really seem to bother them at all."

After a few successful years of off…road racing, the Hardins decided to hit the pavement, after making one small adjustment to the gas pedal to accommodate Eric's prosthetic right foot. "I had to fasten my foot to the pedal because I can't feel it if it falls off the gas. I just use the other half of my leg to control it and it works really well. Anybody can drive the car still."

At Irwindale Speedway in June 2004, Hardin experienced one of the peak moments of his growing career thus far. "It was my rookie season with the Spec Truck, and those guys run really nard," Eric says. "It's a lot more difficult than off-road. We qualified on the pole out of 25 competitors; we started first and led every lap to win the race - by a lot. It caught everybody off guard. It was a really good feeling. Ever since then, I think we've started to get things figured out and we've got the right people on board to make it happen."

That win helped Eric earn the title of 2004 Super Truck Rookie of the Year and, combined with other recent accomplishments, drew the attention of renowned team owner Bill McAnally. In 2006, Team Hardin will compete under the widely recognized banner of Bill McAnally Racing and can draw on the experience and technical knowledge of that winning enterprise.

At 23, Eric has plenty of dark days behind him and a bright future ahead. Far from discouraging him, his brush with mortality has only increased his drive. "As it probably would with anybody who has to go through something like that, it makes me try harder," Hardin says. "I look up to Lance Armstrong. He's a cancer survivor. He went through all that and he's proved himself many times, set records, and made history."