Owen Lada

**Owen Angus Lada** is a CARCA Racer.

## Background

He was born in the summer of 2003, and although there were fears of him being born with Automy 17 (a.k.a. Zakarias Lada Syndrome), he was born perfectly fine. He never really had a big brother as Zakary was often in the hospital and couldn't do anything. He became the brother to 7 siblings, 6 of whom were adopted: Jevon, Akara, Jun, Akinori, Junichi, and Jalen, and one biologically: Ash. Owen was a victim of bullying at school, and quickly became depressed in the summer of 2013 at just the age of 10. He has stated that 2013 was a hard year for him, due to the fact that he was bullied a lot.

## 2014

Owen entered the Junior American Racing Club, a national short track league for racers under 16, and quickly rose to the top. His friends respected him, and he used his depression as motivation to push himself harder.

## 2015

Owen's life took a tragic turn when Zakary was hospitalized for 6 weeks with a severe case of sludgemonia. He was told that Zakary wouldn't live, but he did. He described Zakary as a fighter in an interview, and he wanted to show Zakary his racing talent. After Zakary's hospitalization, things weren't really in Owen's court, as he was losing in JARC.

## 2016

Zakary was flown to Roadland for treatment, and when the doctors asked Zakary what his name was, Owen answered for Zakary, which made the doctors cry. With new technology made in Roadland, they put Zakary on a machine so that he would have a way of communicating. The doctors told Ezekiel and Kristina that Zakary would have to stay in Roadland until they globally launched it. Owen opted to stay in Roadland, but Kristina wouldn't allow it. Kristina decided to stay in Roadland with Zakary. Owen returned to America, where he raced very well.

## 2017

Owen wanted to teach Jun, Akinori, and Junichi how to become a racer, and so he did. Kristina and Ezekiel opted to bring Zakary back to America and have his communication device shipped back, as Zakary seemed homesick, and because Lada Syndrome is always fatal eventually, she wanted him to be able to spend his life at home in case he didn't make it to the release of his device.

## 2018

At 14 years old, he entered CARCA, being the youngest racer in CARCA since Keaton Daniels. He was sponsored by trc.com (a Roadlandian Online Shopping website) and sported the #10. He placed 15th in his debut at Elko, a historic track that Fury Gamington won at in his CARCA career.

## 2019

Owen contributed a lot to CARCA this year, and ran a special paint scheme at Elko for the #Stand4LadaSyndrome 400 as a tribute to Zakary, who most people thought was dead when, in fact, he is still alive. He was in Owen's pit stall, which was the first time he had been seen at a race since 2015. Now that Zakarias was back in the spotlight, he started posting pictures of Zakarias on his instagram, eventually creating an instagram page for Zakarias that has over a million followers. Owen was the one to announce Zakarias' death, which he has been seriously affected by. He announced his hiatus from racing after the death. After the death, he moved out of the household to move in with the Gamingtons. His lack of activity on social media has led to his fans, friends, and family worrying about him. He later went on Live With Max, a Roadlandian Talk Show on RBC. He made a statement to host Max Koren when asked about Zakary's death:

"Well, he lived a life that most of us couldn't have imagined. I mean, he lived here for about 15 months, he traveled to 25 states back in the USA, got wheeled around Florida International Speedway. He was a great big brother. He looked up to me, and I looked up to him. I haven't been doing well since he died, and life will never be the same. I had to leave my family behind to escape the feelings I've been having, and the constant arguments since the death."