[Kirk Spridgeon]

I don't even remember what year Bill started the online racing league, probably 1999 or 2000, and started the original message board for us to use. I was 13 or 14. We were the two using the keyboard to race!! Haha it's still crazy to think what it turned into from that.

I can't recall the exact time when I met Bill in person, but he was a big influence on me in the early 2000s. He probably thought of me as a huge annoyance, especially back then. But he was always helpful to me and reassuring that following my passion would not lead me wrong.

In the last five years or so, I would hear from him every time I hit a new track he liked or wanted to visit, or same from a new ballpark. I always loved to talk big ideas with him, or just road trips and the thought of sprint cars at this track or that track. He is a big reason why we went to Deer Creek in Minnesota last year, and I wish he could have been there.