I was very fortunate to have a dad who took me to the races. He knew better than leave without me after awhile.
I've made a ton of good friends at races. You can't have too many of those. Many of those came via iow.com, thank you Bill.
No other sport/game etc. assaults the senses like racing. I come home from a race either freezing, roasting, dirty, ears ringing, mustard stains on my pants, dust in my eyes (not much fun with contact lens), a half empty gas tank and often a sore behind from sitting on a less than soft seat. I'd not have it any other way.
Perhaps in the future some will say that these are/were the good old days, as many say about days gone by these days.
I appreciate the skills exhibited by racers. They almost make it look easy. I appreciate the folks who work on the cars, who pay the bills that are relentless. I appreciate the promoters with all the gambles that they take. And also the track workers, from the guys in the infield who risk their lives to get the lineup straight to the concession workers who serve those cheeseburgers to the ticket takers and pit shack greeters.
I'm thankful for the late Len Calinoff, who practically demanded that I write an article and to the late John LeVan, who pushed me to write even more. I'm very thankful to Jim Morrison, now editor of Hawkeye Racing News. Along with his predecessor, Kyle, who, with Jim, is on iow.com, I've had to learn how to keep the words to a minimum and and edit myself so they wouldn't have to. Finally I'm extremely thankful to Allan Holland of hoseheads.com, who was smart enough to put KO's columns on his site before he added mine last year, after some strings pulled by Andrew Quinn.
Like many here, I can look off and see that there are fewer years ahead than there are in the rear view mirror. But that's okay; even if I've gone to my last race, I can't complain. It's been a very good run and should the Good Lord decide so, there may well be a few more races on my docket.
Thank you to one of those friends I mentioned earlier for starting this thread.
And Happy Birthday to John Hoover!