[ActionScript/XML] Help needed!

Grrr, spent all morning trying to intergrate a xml feed into the countdown clock from the tutorial offered on this site.

[FONT=Fixedsys]var eventDate;
var race_time;
var race_location;
var raceYear = race_year;
var raceMonth = race_month;
var raceDay = race_day;
var raceHour = race_hour;

var clock_xml = new XML();
clock_xml.ignoreWhite = true;
clock_xml.onLoad = function(success) {
if (success) {
race_time = clock_xml.lastChild.lastChild;
race_location = clock_xml.firstChild.firstChild.firstChild.firstChild;
race_year = race_time.childNodes[1].lastChild;
race_month = race_time.childNodes[2].lastChild;
race_day = race_time.childNodes[3].lastChild;
race_hour = race_time.childNodes[4].lastChild;
}
};[/FONT]
[FONT=Fixedsys]
clock_xml.load(“clock.xml”);
eventDate = new Date([COLOR=Red]parseInt(raceYear), parseInt(raceMonth), parseInt(raceDay)[/COLOR]);

[/FONT]The problem seems stem from the XML data coming in as a string which then needs to be converted into a integer for the new Date(); object.
Can anyone please help?