Paul Dana was an earnest man, a self-promoter who knew what he wanted and gave everything he had trying to get there.
Determination to succeed and passion for racing were the traits most often mentioned on Thursday during a memorial service for the IRL IndyCar Series driver, who died last Sunday.
Dana succeeded in getting to the top of his chosen profession, finding a ride with the IRL's elite Rahal Letterman Racing team. In the end, he was killed fulfilling one of the great passions in his life: Racing an open-wheel car.
The 32-year-old American sustained fatal injuries in a two-car crash during a warmup session for the season-opening race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Most of his fellow IndyCar drivers turned out for the service next to the track where Sunday's Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will be run, including Ed Carpenter, who came away from the accident with a bruised lung.
None of the drivers spoke during the service, but Tom Blattler, a public relations person with the team and a longtime friend of Dana, said, "He wanted to go racing. He wanted to go to the big time and he did whatever it took to get there."
Dana got a late start in the sport and he didn't have the kind of money it takes to get to the top in this business. That meant he had to claw and scratch for every ride, sweet-talking team owners and sponsors and convincing them they wanted him as their driver.
Blattler pointed out Dana worked many jobs to finance his love of racing, including driving school instructor, team public relations and even writing about motorsports for national publications like Autoweek and Sports Illustrated.
"He was an incredible writer and went to Northwestern University," Blattler said. "He came to the races and learned and studied. Paul even upset some people. You couldn't pull anything over Paul's eyes as a writer.
"I don't know anybody who had a passion like Paul to do what he wanted to do. And he knew the only way to do it was to go out and learn his craft and also go behind the scenes and learn how to bring money to racing.
"There's a lot of guys that we know have a lot of talent but never had a chance to be a real professional because they didn't know how to approach people and find the money to get you there," he added.
"I never knew anybody who knew more about his sponsors than Paul Dana," Blattler said. "He wasn't just about racing. He went and spoke to Washington DC lobbyists, he became buddies with senators, talking about renewable fuels."
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