Staying on Track

There's a good reason my AOL nickname is IrishOnTrack.

There's a good reason I've written hundreds of stories and shot thousands of photos of NASCAR events for newspapers all over the U.S. of A.

And there's another good reason I once ran the biggest NASCAR stringer market in the nation - Folks who were in my stable were at the tracks and peppered me with copy. From there, it would go to clients such as U.P.I., USA TODAY and too many other dailies list here.

The reason, you see was Gerald Martin, a past president of the Motorsports Writers of America and a fine writer himself. Gerald at the time was working on a biorgraphy of Rusty Wallace and covering NASCAR for The News & Observer in Raleigh.

The N&O had hired me from the Rocky Mountain News, one of the ten largest dailies in the nation. Now being a dumbass, wet-nosed kid out of Connecticut, if you don't count Jerry Nadeau, NASCAR in particular and motorsports in general were not well perceived.

I remember talking with Gerald about how on earth a man could enjo 2,000 left-turns on a Sunday afternoon. He laughed. But Gerald then began doing things no one else had tried before - he educated me about the sport. About NASCAR, its drivers, its machines, it's lap lengths and banking radius.

Then when he felt I was ready, he got me some freelance work at Lowe's Motor Speedway (then Charlotte Motor Speedway) and my personal race with this sport grew and grew.

I still cover some events when I can but not as many as I would like. And I also found Gerald's death to be shocking to my sysem (the man was only in his 50s). But go out I will and cover the events I can.

All because of what Gerald taught me. And rght now sports fans, the Ol' Irishman is going to take a Web site he owns (www.litesports.com) and convert it into a tribute to the No. 2. That was Rusty's machine. And Gerald's. Don't go there yet though. I've only put in about 15 minutes on it so far. But you, as well as NASCAR, Miller and Kurt Busch and those tracks I visit, will soon like what you see.

Um, make that 2,400 left-hand turns for the 24th of this year. It's 600 time!

Stimulating the major leagues

With all this talk about the muckey mucks taking big bonuses on Wall Street, you'd think someone - anyone - would come out against how part of your stimulus money is going to support major-league sports.

Don't think so? Name the banks and corporations that are getting tax and funding breaks only to use part of that money on the name of sports arenas and stadiums around the country. There's plenty to go around but it's all so galling.

Here we bail out a bank and then it slaps its name on the Mets' new digs. That's a shame. And we don't even get a break when it comes to ticket prices.

The problem, you see, is Obama's plan involves a tremendous amount of money. I mean a gosh-darn, dang-blasted huge, mother-of-all-infusions in history. And everyone wants their hands in the cookie jar, me included.

I want to go back to school - Wake Tech Community College - to get a certificate in Web Design. But the government doesn't give grants for certificate loans even though I will put in the equivalent of an A.D. in getting one. I also want a small business loan to take litesports.com and convert it into a tribute site for Miller Lite and the sports it promotes (to sell it to Miller someday obviously). I need to hire a FLASH and JavaScript guru to help me but there's no SBA loan available that I can put my hands on.

So where's my stimulus, Mr. Obama. I want to grow the economy, fund education, put someone to work and there's no where for me to go.

If you have any suggestions, email me at michaelwemmett@yahoo.com - until that, I will just watch your fat cats getting fatter.