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!