Usually race drivers and hospitals only come together during times of crises, but a different relationship has emerged between Stefany Malanka and the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario.

It began because Malanka has embraced a family passion for the sport that began with her father, Bruce, well before she was born.

The Embrun resident also has visions of becoming a pediatric surgeon. Four months shy of her 22nd birthday, she has already completed four years of undergraduate studies at the University of Ottawa, majoring in biochemistry. She plans to return soon for a master's degree, then take a shot at med school.

CHEO is also visible on the hood of her new car, which she hopes to race for the first time this Saturday at Capital City Speedway near Stittsville.

Malanka and her team are searching for sponsors and sponsorship money, and she gives a percentage of that income to CHEO. Her only sponsor so far is OCC Painting, but she says she's on the verge of signing more.

"The CHEO Foundation Charity is really important to me because I'm an aspiring doctor and I think this a great charity to be involved with," Malanka says. "We always try to give as much back to the community as possible.

"They're really happy with the partnership, and this is the only instance when they've been partnered with a race team. Apparently they're not really interested in doing it with any other driver because I have that fit with them."

Norma Lamont, vice-president of community development for the CHEO Foundation, admits the arrangement "certainly is unusual.

"Because Stefany is in university in the health-care field, this was something she was interested in doing, so it's great. She's raising much-needed money for our kids, and we're honoured she selected our charity."

Bruce Malanka was a crew chief on the New Jersey-based Fred Opert Formula Racing team back when, as he says, dinosaurs roamed the Earth. He stopped his own racing career before Stefany was born and says he never pushed her toward the sport, but the only child in the Malanka household found her own way to the track.

"It just so happened that I was at a carting track for a birthday party, and there was a flyer for the local cart club," she says. "I brought it home, dad thought it was kind of neat and we looked into it, and then I got my first cart. I worked my way up through the ranks."

Malanka was 11 when she got her first cart, in 1999, and three years later, she was racing throughout North America during her final cart season. She moved up to Formula (open-wheel) cars for five years, and Saturday's race, weather permitting, will mark the start of her stock-car career in the ThunderCars class.

"It seems that's where all the money is," she says. "I'll still drive some Formula Ford races this year, but we're shifting our focus.

"Formula One has always been a dream, and, if someone handed me a pile of money tomorrow to go race Formula One, I'd definitely take them up on that offer."

On the other hand, several North American Formula drivers, such as Juan Pablo Montoya and Patrick Carpentier, have moved into NASCAR, Malanka says.

Malanka gives some credit to IndyCar Series driver Danica Patrick, who, in 2005, became just the fourth woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500 and who, in April, became the first woman to win an IndyCar race by taking the checkered flag at the Indy Japan 300.

However, while saying that Patrick has done well for herself, Malanka is working on making her own name known.

"I can't say I'm aiming to be the next Danica Patrick, I'm aiming to be the first Stefany Malanka, but she has totally been an inspiration just because she has been able to make a name for herself and do really well," she says.

Malanka road-tested her stock car for the first time a week ago.

"I'm a little nervous because it's something new," she says.

"I've never raced on an oval, but I'm more nervous from the perspective that I want to do well, rather than the whole danger aspect. I'm always a little nervous for that, but nothing extra. I'm definitely excited."

So is Bruce Malanka.

"When she's actually racing I watch her as a father," he says. "When we're out practising and testing, we're really focusing on making the car go fast, but on race day I just walk away from it completely.

''We have other people that help us, and in fact I think it makes her a little calmer to not have me around.

"She has been doing this such a long time I'm used to it now.

''As a parent I'm still always a little bit nervous when she goes out, but she has certainly put the miles in, and I'm pretty confident with her skills when she goes out."