SPARKS — Protective gear and special equipment might keep local native TJ Bell safe on the race track, but all the racing experts and sponsors in the world can’t protect him from something really frightening.

“We can go three wide, 200 miles an hour but you say the word ‘cancer’ and we’re all pretty scared,” Bell said.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver is taking a break from his need for speed this weekend to help his future mother-in-law, Linda Gamboa, and local women like her who are battling breast cancer. He and fellow racer Matt Crafton are using their notoriety to help raise funds for Moms on the Run, a local charity that gives aid to breast cancer patients in northern Nevada. They will be at today’s event at Reno High School signing autographs and auctioning off a specially made helmet and racing suit to raise money for the cause. The helmet is signed by all the members of the truck series circuit.

Moms on the Run was started 10 years ago by Barbara Pinocchio, who owns Pinoccio’s Bar and Grill locations in Reno and Sparks with her husband J.P. The event is in memory of Barbara’s sister, Debra Gouveia, who died 11 years ago from breast cancer. A decade later, Moms on the Run now spends about $16,000 each month helping 35 local women pay their bills while undergoing cancer treatment. Barbara said Saturday afternoon that today’s event has about 3,000 people signed up with a goal of raising $300,000.

The presence of Bell and Crafton will be a bonus this year, Barbara said.

“I don’t know that we’ve had a celebrity type at our event,” she said while working at Reno High on registration, “other than the Sparks and Reno mayor, so it will be fun to see.”

Bell said he is happy to use his fame in the racing world to give to this cause.

“I’m in the position where I can try and help out so I’d really love to and that’s what brought me to this Moms on the Run deal,” he said.

What also brought him here is a lifetime of seeing people afflicted with cancer. It started when he was about 10 years old, he said, when a friend with cancer who was bound to a wheelchair and had lost all her hair went trick-or-treating for both of them because Bell was always too busy with go-kart racing. This young friend had a last wish granted by the Special Wish Foundation, which inspired Bell to be a spokesman for the foundation as an adult.

Three years ago, Bell’s own mother had melanoma removed from her arm, which opened both his eyes and his father’s to the disease. And in Cleveland, Ohio, a young cancer patient made a lasting impression on Bell. It had been a tough day at the track with Bell managing to turn a last-place position into a third-place finish. Afterward, Bell went to see a patient named Brandon at the hospital. For some reason Bell left his shades on inside. It was a good thing he did when Brandon told him, “When I grow up I want to be like you.”

“I’m glad I had sunglasses on because, boy, they filled up,” Bell remembered. “It just really hit home about how special and how delicate life is.”

When Gamboa was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2009, Bell’s fiancee, Alexis, rushed to northern Nevada from the couple’s home in North Carolina. As the only of her five daughters to leave Reno, Gamboa called Alexis her “free Willy,” but the threat to her mother’s life lassoed the 23-year-old daughter’s wild spirit.

“It brought us closer because she saw the compassion and I saw her compassion for life and we kind of bonded,” Alexis said. “It was a different experience. I don’t think I left her side for at least three months.”

Now in the final stages of treatment and feeling much better, Gamboa said she wants to help spread the word about how Moms on the Run can help women through the pain and expense of the experience.

“They could do a lot more but the funds aren’t there,” Gamboa said about Moms on the Run. “One of my treatments is $8,000 so if you can imagine if you’re a single mom or you’re a family that has lost their income, it’s huge. It’s really huge.”

She also said her future son-in-law’s participation should be an added draw for this year’s event.

“People know who he is and they already have called and said, ‘Oh, I hear TJ is in town, is he going to be at this Pinoccio’s?’ ” she said. “I’d say they started asking two weeks ago.”

“The word cancer is scary no matter what it is,” Bell said. “Linda is a real fighter and she’s done everything she needed to to try to beat his. We knew she would, she’s a tough woman.”

Moms on the Run is today at Reno High School. Registration is from 7 to 8 a.m. and the race starts at 9 a.m. Donations can be made all year at www.momsontherun.info.