Bobby Labonte and Cody Unser, the 15-year-old daughter of Al Unser Jr., appeared together in California on Thursday to help promote a medical conference related to the disease that has left her paralyzed from the chest down. Labonte helped start The Cody Unser First Step Foundation (www.codysfirststep.org) by donating $60,000 he won for a second-place finish in the 1999 IROC series after he had filled in for her father. Labonte is the foundation’s honorary chairman. The two appeared at the Christopher Reeve-Irvine Research Center at the University of California-Irvine, one of the world’s top spinal cord research facilities.(Tampa Tribune)(4-27-2002) (4-26-2002)
