Borelli, CEO of Borelli Investment Company and longtime Saratoga resident, is the owner of a historic stock car--the No. 22 Maxwell House, a 1991 Ford Thunderbird driven by Sterling Marlin from 1991 to 1993 on the Winston Cup circuit. Marlin captured the pole position in the No. 22 in 1992 at the Daytona 500.

Borelli bought the car in 1999 and restored it to racing condition. He now races it for the Historic Stock Car Racing Series, an organization dedicated to the restoration, preservation and continued competition of former NASCAR stock cars.

"To drive a car fast on a racetrack takes total concentration," Borelli says. "They are very simple cars and they are a lot of fun to drive."

Borelli started racing cars as a hobby 30 years ago and, while his hobby is a lot of fun, it has also become a way to raise money for charity. Bidders have been vying for a chance to sit shotgun in Borelli's car, and in other historic stock cars like it, in an exhibition race July 31 on the final day of the Taylor Woodrow Grand Prix of San Jose. All proceeds raised by the exhibition race will be donated to the Canary Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the early detection and prevention of cancer.

The winning bidder for the July 31 race will race through the streets of San Jose in Borelli's No. 22 alongside cars formerly driven by Jeff Gordon and Richard Petty, among others. Winning bidders get approximately 10 laps on the racetrack, an official T-shirt and hat and a photo of themselves in the car.

The winners will get the chance to take a high-speed ride in some fast and famous cars, Borelli says. "They're going to get the opportunity to ride on a real race course in a real bona fide Winston Cup racecar."

The cars have a big following of enthusiastic and knowledgeable fans, Borelli explains. One car in the Historic Stock Car Racing Series that attracts particular attention was formerly driven by the late Dale Earnhardt. "People get real emotional when they see that car," Borelli says.

Borelli usually drives for events such as the exhibition race Sunday morning, but this time he'll be out of the country on race day so he's turning over the wheel to his mechanic, Scott Rubin. Rubin is the owner of McGee Motorsports Group located at the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma. Rubin spends much of his time on raceways working on race cars and with their owners.

"It's a really wonderful group of people who drive race cars," Rubin says. Rubin has known Borelli for several years. "He's a real good guy," he says. "Unfortunately for him, racing is a strong addiction and he's been afflicted with it."

The open-wheeled Champ Cars that will be racing in the Taylor Woodrow Grand Prix of San Jose are a breed apart from the stock cars of NASCAR. Stock cars have a lot of horsepower and not a lot of tire, Rubin says. "You've really got to manhandle them around some. They take some getting used to."

Anyone familiar with NASCAR might recall seeing high-speed multi-car smash-ups and drivers pulling themselves out of windows as their cars are engulfed in flames. For the winning bidders who crawl into these historic stock cars Sunday morning, safety might be on their minds.

"We take very good care to follow the safety rules," Rubin says. "[Stock cars] are made to hit the wall at 200 mph at Daytona. Physical damage to the person is very rare."

For the exhibition race, Rubin sees little chance of an accident or of the kind of aggressive contact between cars seen in NASCAR races--especially when you consider how much time and money the owners of these cars have spent to restore them. "But driving someone else's car, I'm going to have a cyanide capsule under my seat just in case," Rubin says.

Exhibition or not, Rubin guarantees that for the winning bidders Sunday morning will be a white-knuckled, adrenaline-filled experience they won't soon forget.

Dale Jantzen, president of the Canary Fund, said the Historic Stock Car Racing Series is offering the public a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. "We are really happy that Ralph and his colleagues came up with this idea and offered it to us," he says. "What they've offered to do is put people into the passenger seats of those cars. People will get a real racing experience on a track."

The Canary Fund takes a different approach to fighting cancer. Where much of the emphasis on cancer research goes to treatment and searching for a cure, the Canary Fund concentrates its efforts on early detection and prevention. "If you find cancer early, the data is quite clear that it can be treated effectively," Jantzen said.

The exhibition race on July 31 in downtown San Jose will be a unique experience for the winning bidders, Borelli says. "And it's for a good cause."