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It started on Memorial Day in the garage in my hometown of Munster, Indiana.  My dad working on his car, with the Indy 500 on the radio.  I dreamed of one day racing at the speedway and becoming one of the heroes on the radio.  A few years later, my dad took me to a friend's race shop.  Inside were a bunch of Porsches and other cars I didn't really know.  Upstairs in the drive up loft were USAC and Champ Cars galore.  I sat in an old Gould car from 1979.  I remember it being Tom Sneva's car, but now that I look back at it, it was probably one of Rick Mears' cars.  I remember thinking that Tom Sneva had won that year, in a car with Gould on the side.  For years while racing in the SCCA, I thought I had sat in the race winning car from the 1983 500.  :)  I think I put the two Gould liveries together in my mind.  

I think that radio broadcast and that day with the steering wheel in my hands, those wheels way out in front of me - unable to touch the pedals without pulling on the bottom of the steering wheel  Those two days were the days it all changed for me.  

Years later, my father took me to my first Indy 500, an experience that I'll never forget.  We went for many years, but that first time, the cars going faster and faster each pace lap, then screaming out of turn four and heading off into one that first time.  I've taken a ton of people with me to Indy for the first time and that first lap is always the one that seems to make the biggest impression.

I look back and after all these years, it was that one Sunday in the garage listening to my heroes on the radio that hooked me, that got me interested in how to get started in road racing.  Soon after I had pictures of race cars, 935s, 962s and 917s on my walls instead of lions and elephants.

I was the kid at the arcades who went straight to the go karts.  I couldn't get enough.  I wanted a real kart, but it was out of reach, so I played on the arcade karts and taught myself how to drive.

I crewed for a late model team at a local short track for several summers during middle and high school.  I loved those nights at the track with all those passionate race fans - sharing in the Friday night experience.

I loved cars and was an avid reader of long gone titles like Sports Car Graphic and ones that are still here like Autoweek, Car and Driver and my favorite, Road and Track. Each month I read the stories by Paul Frere, Peter Egan and Stirling Moss and wished I could be a racing journalist.  I started figuring out how to go to school to become an automotive journalist.

Little did I know that journalism really didn't pay.  I worked side jobs after college and finally realized what I'd known all along,  It was all about racing.  I wanted to race, not just write about it.  I dedicated the next several years to trying to become a professional race car driver.