This story was sent to me by No Fenders
'Offical Photographer CARPETS', who recently spotted I-T in his local
Fish-wrap, i.e.; Indianapolis Star Newspaper, which unfortunately longtime
IndyCar "Insider" Curt Cavin has just departed! As hopefully the
IndyStar won't be so short-sighted as to not find a comparable replacement for
its IndyCar coverage; but I digress...
As I must confess, that even now, a decade
after his death, I still know virtually anything 'bout Paul Dana, other than I
do recall hearing 'bout his death that weekend of the '06 season opening
Homestead I"RL race, where Dana was team-mates with Buddy "Hot
Rod" Rice and Queen Danica Patrick at Booby Ruble's RLLR racing team, who
pulled both entries from the race in honour of their fallen driver.
Whilst on a side note, Dana who brought the Ethanol
brand not only to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing from Hemelgarn Racing, and
ultimately the Indy Racing League. Would see Jeff Simmons taking over for him
before being replaced by somebody named Ryan Hunter-Reay...
Alas, how can anybody who hasn't personally
experienced the tragedy of losing a loved partner adequately describe their
feelings of loss? Being even more devastating for Tonya Bergeson-Dana,
who notes in her forthcoming book simply titled Crash, she was expecting to
surprise her husband Paul about being pregnant upon his return home from Miami
that fateful weekend.
With Bergeson-Dana's book intended to
not only help resolve her grieving process, having found little information
previously that helped her as a single parent, along with telling a lasting
story for their son Conor about his late father's life.
As Tonya's managed to move on, and has
successfully opened the Urban Chalkboard in Indianapolis, explaining it's
simply like when the Children's museum meets Starbucks...