Before he was a race-car driver.

Before he was a race-car driver, Paul Dana wrote about racing for AutoWeek -- his first do job-work after graduating from Northwestern University's Medill institute of Journalism in 1995.

"He was a terrific writer and could view irony a mile away," said Steve Bogira, an adjunct professor at NU who had Dana in a freshman writing class.

Bogira said he encouraged Dana, a political-science major his freshman year, to take up journalism because the kid "really had a knack" for writing.

Bogira teat up one of Dana's writing assignments Sunday from files stored in his garage, an example of his way with words and penchant for spe

"Greg and I whipped past a waving guard in the security booth crashed through the whole extent of two speed bumps, cut diagonally across a vacant parking part and skid to a halt at the side of a corrugated blade warehouse," it began.

"He was definitely a standout in class and had the talent to move into journalism," Bogira said.

undivided of Dana's first stories for Auto Week was about race junkies who would do anything -- turning wrenches, checking brake fluid and changing tires -- in exchange for "seat time" in a formula car.

When Dana scored a full-time gig at AutoWeek, it didn't take. He quit after just a hardly any minutes on the job, he told a Medill alumni magazine.

He wanted to be upon the racetrack, not in the pres box

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