Where to begin...
In 1997, I attended my first sprint car race at Winnipeg's Victory Lane Speedway. Around that same time, we had our first computer at home. Being new to the internet, one of my first attempts at searching online was about Sprint Cars.
The first website I came across was Allan Holland's Hoseheads. The other site that I found was a local website entitled SprintsNMidgets.com by Winnipeg webmaster Don McAuley. I bookmarked the two and they became my goto sites for racing information.
Forward to 1999, I created the NOSAfan's Fan Page and eventually began writing anecdotes about my experiences at dirt tracks.
At some point I asked Don if I could email him my writeups and he said yes. I did this for some time, when in 2000, Don invited me to submit a periodic column for SprintsNMidgets. As I recall him telling me, he would look at my writings when I emailed them, but after a while he started reading them fully and thought they were pretty good.
I needed a catchy title and eventually came up with NOSA fan's Dirt from the Stands.
Being new to writing, I didn't really know if what I was writing was any good or not. It was Don's encouragement and positive feedback that gave me the confidence to keep moving forward with my little dirt track racing column.
About a year later, I asked Don if he thought Dirt from the Stands was good enough to forward to other racing websites and he told me to go for it. Eventually, my column would appear on other racing websites including Hoseheads, TJ Slideways, MN Dirt Track Racing and Sean Moran to name a few.
It was this exposure that was the springboard for so many amazing experiences in dirt track racing.
After reviewing the scope of my subject matter in 2003, eventually "NOSAfan" was dropped from the website for an expanded vision entitled "Prairie Dirt".
In the early days, Don and I would chat quite a bit. Sometimes we would visit. I also recall Heather and I going on a May long weekend trip to Grand Forks with Don and his wife, Sue, which included a very cold Friday night of racing at River Cities Speedway.
Sometimes life throws us changes resulting in people drifting in and out of each other's lives. Such is the case with Don and myself. Thanks to social media, we were able to stay in touch and message each other occasionally.
I will always give Don McAuley absolute credit for being the catalyst of Dirt from the Stands' beginnings. I am thankful for everything that he has meant to my life's journey.
I recently found out that Don's health was deteriorating. Although I feel sad, I needed to share this writing because it's important and it helps.
Thank you, Don, for your friendship and for giving me an opportunity to write. I will never forget your kindness and encouragement.
Love and respect always. Until we meet again...
Greg
