It's a long-standing joke in my family that my first word was not the typical "Momma" or "Dadda" that we usually associate with children's first words. Mine? "Car". For someone that has grown with such a passion for the automobile, or to be as Barry Meguiar, head of the Meguiar's car polish chain, and host of a Speed Channel program, I guess you can say that from the earliest days of my life, I've been certifiably "car crazy".

If it were just once instance, it'd be passable as just a phase. That however is indeed not the case. I've grown-up watching NASCAR Winston Cup, and am as passionate about it's "Grand National" past as I am all sorts of racing far exceeding my time. I grew up watching what my father pointed to me, but evolved into my own man by watching sports cars, Formula One, CART, sprint cars, midgets, and evolving with my own tastes much as I picked up on his veritable tastes.

The big one, is the obvious one. Dirt track racing. When I say that, I take it a step further and say "Dirt track late model racing" because that is what the most prevalent format of dirt oval racing in the midwest has been since the midget's heyday came and went in the immediate area. Chicago has a storied racing history, dating back to the first known motor race from Chicago to Evanston; and my passion for racing in this decidedly stick and ball town is unwavering and relentless despite the ignorant plight our media saddles it in.

It is over time that I've realized exactly what power I have in the sport, even as much as to astound myself at times when I think about it. True, I am but one man, much as anyone, but to be vocal is a sign of passion, and to speak out against the atrocities caused by the benign in thought, I feel is something that every person, in every faction of humankind *NEEDS* to do.

From the days of Todd Turner's infamous online e-zine DirtNews Digest to the various postings and fan and racer comments on www.4m.net, I've often sat ignorant to even the powers of what I've said, and how much people have read it and attained a reaction, positive or negative. From designing the website for BillyMoyer.com (one of the sport's premiere drivers) in it's 1.0 and 2.1 guise, to taking a position as a scorer at Kankakee Motor Speedway with the legendary (in Chicago racing circles) O'Connor family at the helm. There's so much that comes floating in year to year that it stuns me.

Yet it's people like my personal favorite, Robert Pohlman Jr. (the reason for the 27) of Oak Lawn, Illinois that fuel this. You see, at age 10 when I reacquainted myself with the historic Santa Fe Speedway after a 5 year absence, it was this man that stood out much as a budding Michael Jordan or Walter Payton does to a fan in the stands at their respective outlets. People like Tony Izzo Sr., Jim O'Connor, Larry Jackson, John Provenzano, and Arnie Gardner. They were my childhood heroes, and of an almost equivelant status to the youthful outtake on the arena before my mother, father, and me. To some it was a local body shop worker or insurance salesman doing the hobby he loved, to others... it was much more than that.

That fuel still stands at age 28, looking at the sport of dirt track racing through ever-widening eyes. True, it is grassroots. It's not televised as often as it deserves, yet... are all things truly great always televised? I don't think so.

It is this sort of passion that fuels me when I have written my articles for Doc Lehman's DirtAmericaOnline.com, the online Dirt Late Model magazine, much as it did in that first published editorial article in DirtNews Digest years ago for Todd. This very same semblance of passion that ignited me in my youth, the same monumental passion for the "car" that has my family joking it as my first word.

Car Crazy? You bet I am, and I wouldn't have it any other way.