The ingredients of what makes a "future star" are always debatable. Sometimes it seems as if the first time you picked up a ball or a musical instrument or you tried something at a very early age, you were destined for glory.

Other times, you may stumble into the profession that eventually gives you your stardom completely by accident. Maybe you become the unwilling heir to the family business and you go on to make it soar to new heights. Or maybe you were at a friend's house and tried piano for the first time and just felt a connection that later turns into a career.

Much of what makes Houston McCoy's future stardom plausible can be traced to circumstances of an almost miraculous kind.

You see, when Houston's mother Deborah was pregnant with the now 16-year-old, she was suffering the ravages of Hodgkin's disease. Ten weeks into her pregnancy, her doctors suggested an immediate abortion so they could start treatment. Seeing the pregnancy through could well result in life and death issues for mother and/or child.

Deborah wasn't on board with that plan.

"I didn't feel I had the power to make those decisions," she told her family at the time. "I just asked them to pray, and let them know that who lives or dies was a decision only the Lord could make."

The prayers were answered.

Eight months into her term, Houston was delivered to the world on May 12, 1992. He weighed just 6 pounds. He had to stay in ICU for two weeks while his lungs finished developing. Deborah is perfectly healthy, and permanently faithful.

Legend has it that the biggest part of Houston's tiny little stature at that time was his right foot.

"It was very touch and go there for a while just before Houston was born," said Houston's father, Ronnie McCoy. "The doctors feared for Deborah if she attempted to carry the pregnancy to term. But there was never really any question in her mind. Thank God it worked out just fine."

Nearly 17 years, 100 wins and championships in go-karts later, the boy who beat the odds is trying to become the man who makes it to NASCAR. Nobody who knows Houston and has seen him race doubts the potential of the "Baldwyn Bullet" from Mississippi.

Oh, and did I mention that Ronnie has had nine heart attacks and is very much alive and well today?

You might say survival is in the McCoy family's DNA.

"This family's story definitely strains credibility, but that's what makes it so remarkable," Team Full Throttle's founder and driver coach Tom Baker says. "Now that I've gotten to know Houston and his family so well, I must say it's very inspiring to know them and be friends with them, and to be working to help Houston achieve his dream. He's a very talented young racer, and he has tremendous passion for the sport. He's mentally tough for his age, and I think that's what's carried him to this point in his career."

McCoy was introduced to Baker and the Team Full Throttle concept by fellow racer and fan Jake Arey. Arey brought the two together after Houston won the biggest race in circle track Go-Karts, the National Indoor Kart Championship in Tunica, Mississippi. Houston picks up the story from there.

"Jake brought me to the announcer's tower to meet Tom, and I hardly said a word," the 16-year-old remembers with a grin. "I was just amazed that someone from a NASCAR driver development program would want anything to do with a boy from Baldwyn, Mississippi. I listened to what he had to say, and then my family and I went to North Carolina to meet with them about a month later. We signed the deal just before Christmas that year and that program has completely changed my life. I knew then that my dream actually had a better shot at coming true."

Considered one of the finest young talents in the mid-south, McCoy's fate with Team Full Throttle was sealed when two "fans" from his area wrote to them after hearing the rumors of their interest in him and suggested they sign him. "I've been developing racers for years, and I've never had an unsolicited outside email come in about a racer we're looking at before," said Baker. "The fact that Houston is viewed by so many folks over there as a top prospect gave us confidence we were doing the right thing."

In 2008, Houston achieved a goal he had set at the beginning of the season. He used a combination of patience and skill that showed a maturity beyond his years to win the Mississippi Maxxis State Series Championship. He was competing against adult racers for the first time, and he methodically took what each of the series' races would give him in terms of results, focusing on the "big prize", which he got at season's end. It was a nourishing way to close out the go-kart chapter of his racing career.

"I really wanted that championship bad," Houston said. "Running in the senior classes for the first time, for me to be able to beat guys who've been racing for so long, that meant a lot to me. I look up to a lot of those guys and it was really cool to be racing with them for wins."

Houston was ready for the next "step" in his developmental ladder. In October, a trip to North Carolina for Team Full Throttle's annual convention saw him climb aboard a Legends car for the first time. In just over 50 laps of practice, he was within a second and a half of the track record. Everyone knew it was time.

But now another obstacle threatens to hold back his progress - the funding to make the transition to the fast and challenging cars.

"We are definitely trying," Ronnie McCoy said. "With me not able to work, it makes it pretty tough financially. We would certainly welcome any and all inquiries, because we have a lot to offer for any company that wants to partner with us and brand themselves with Houston. With Team Full Throttle, we have the ability to work with teams all the way to the Sprint Cup level, so we know we can deliver what we promise to the right company looking to form a long term relationship."

One thing that distinguishes Houston from many of his competitors is his desire to give back. Last year, the youngster adopted the LeBonheur Children's Medical Center in Memphis, Tennessee, as his "charity of choice" and donated all the winnings from his season of racing to the pediatric facility, which specializes in treating children's illnesses and serves 95 counties in six states throughout the mid-south.

Of this program, Houston says, "I understand how lucky our family has been to have had so much go wrong but to all have survived and be able to enjoy life as we do. If I can do something to make the lives of some sick children a little happier, then I want to do that. I am looking forward to the day when I make more money with my racing so I can give more and more."

The 2009 season will find Houston continuing to ease his way into the Legends cars, beginning with his racing debut in the division sometime around Memorial Day. You can be sure that no matter how difficult the road in front of him becomes, the durable 16-year-old will find the right way to travel it, and continue his journey toward the top of the motorsports ladder.

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