CHRISTIAN ELDER

December 6th, 1968 - August 12th, 2007

The Christian Elder Memorial 900 is dedicated to the memory of Christian Elder who died in 2007 at the age of 38.

Christian was a project manager with Elder-Jones, Inc., a family owned retail construction company. He served many of the country's top retailers building stores throughout the United States and Canada.

Prior to his employment with Elder-Jones, Christian was a professional race car driver. He competed in the NASCAR Goody's Dash series with wins at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1997 and Daytona in 1999. He set a track speed record in qualifying on the pole at Bristol Motor Speedway. In addition to stock car racing, Christian also enjoyed success in road racing, co-driving the winning car at the 1998 Motorola Cup race at Mosport Canada and at the 12 Hour Endurance race at Homestead, FL.

Christian enjoyed his boat (the Drama Queen) where he could be found with friends almost every weekend on Lake Norman, a lake near his home in Charlotte. He also enjoyed hunting on his family's farm in Minnesota in the fall, mountain biking, and scuba diving. He even tried skydiving.

He was very proud of Yukon, his Labrador Retriever, and the numerous hunting test titles he earned. A little Yorkie named Henry was his constant companion.

Christian flew from North Carolina to Minneapolis to greet his dad and other 900 mile participants as they finished each of the first two Big Sky 900 rides. He was planning to join the team to ride the 2008 event.

All who ride and participate in what is now titled the Christian Elder Memorial 900 Charity Ride, do so in loving memory of Christian.