TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

For 18-year old Ryan Reed, the past year has been all about learning. Learning to live 3,000 miles from his parents and friends in Bakersfield. 

Learning how to drive stock cars on racetracks he’d never seen before.

Learning how to run his own race team.  

And learning how to live with Type I diabetes while trying to prove he has what it takes to be a professional racer. 

It turned out to be a bit too much for the 2011 graduate of Liberty High. 

So Reed gave up ownership of the race team, switched gears and will be driving on the ARCA Racing Series circuit this season for Venturini Motorsports. He kicks off the season on Saturday in the Lucas Oil Mist 200 at Daytona International Speedway. Practice gets under way today. 

Reed has secured enough funding to run 11 of the 20 ARCA races and is working on the other nine. 

“Racing at Daytona is a dream come true,” said Reed, who was among the speed leaders in testing last month. “Since I was a kid I dreamed of the day I would have the opportunity to compete on the historic track.” 

Reed was diagnosed with Type I diabetes on Feb. 20, 2011, after he was already in the process of setting up his race team (which backing from his father, Mark) in North Carolina. 

When told he could continue to race under proper management of his diabetes, the move to North Carlina was completed, the team was put together and Reed went racing. 

He competed in about a dozen late model races and three NASCAR K&N East Pro Series events but that, with his diabetes, was too much of a juggling act to handle. 

“It was just too much for me and my dad (who runs a citrus business in Bakersfield) with my diabetes,” Reed said of the decision to disband Ryan Reed Racing. “It was too much to manage with me being a diabetic and trying to treat this disease. 

“I get in a race car, I have to make sure my blood sugar is right, really concentrate on my fitness level. I’ve got a doctor, a nurse, a nutritionist and a personal trainer and I have to answer to them on daily basis. Plus a crew chief. It’s very time consuming.” 

So the decision was made to sell the team and put the sponsorship they had into the highly successful Venturini Motorsports organization and just drive. 

The ARCA series is often used as a stepping stone for young drivers aspiring to reach the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. 

Reed has learned to live with diabetes over the past year and has become a celebrity advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. NASCAR artist Sam Bass designed the paint scheme for his JDRF-themed car which he will debut today. 

Like Reed, Bass is also a Type I diabetic. 

And like Bass, Reed is learning to live as a diabetic.

“I can’t say it’s been fun,” he said. “It’s been definitely been maturing. If there is any positive light it’s just made me live how I’m supposed to. 

“A teenager like me likes to eat cheeseburgers. I don’t have that luxury. It changed my way of living, which is not all bad.” 

Now, instead of burgers, fries and shakes Reed eats mostly chicken, fish and fresh vegetables and has special drink mixes for race days. 

“I didn’t use to like fish, now I do,” he said. “I can cheat a little bit. Once in a while I have a little pasta, but pasta turns to sugar which is the worst thing.”

He sends blood sugar reports to NASCAR every three months and personally sees Dr. Anne Peters of the USC Clinical Diabetes Program in, every three months. 

“I’m in the best shape of my life out of necessity,” Reed said. “When you life is contingent on how you (manage the diabetes) you pay attention to it,”

Last month Reed spoke at a NASCAR medical summit to help raise awareness of diabetes. 

“NASCAR has been nothing been supportive and we’ve been cleared to race all the way to the Sprint Cup level,” he said. 

Now the goal is to keep his diabetes in check, and climb the racing ladder toward Sprint Cup.

“This is a new chapter of my life,” he said. “The story restarted when I was diagnosed Type I and now it’s chapter two.”