“When things were tough, and work was very intense, his sanctuary was music. He connected with John Hendry at Trojan City Music in Troy. Doug would drive down to the music shop, get a cup of coffee and sit for hours and hang out. It became part of his and our daughter Kayla‘s life together.
“His other great passion was New York pizza. That was one of his favorite things. When we moved to Ohio, he made it a mission to find a good place to get New York pizza, and finally discovered Troni‘s Pizza in Dayton. He‘d drive all the way down there for pizza without a second thought.”
As his friends and colleagues reflected on his passing, Auld‘s personality traits were well-known to his peers. He was determined, strong of will, passionate, undaunted. He was never afraid to take on a difficult topic, a controversial subject or an intimidating situation.
He was also a fiercely loyal friend. His hour-long phone conversations were the stuff of legend, covering an infinite variety of far-ranging topics.
“He was a good friend,” said Beitler. “We always connected at Knoxville, Chili Bowl, Charlotte, and hung out after the races. I always looked forward to that. Doug was really down to earth, very friendly. He never acted, because of his position, that he was any better than anyone else. He loved racing. He was very fortunate to make a living doing something he truly loved.
“He brought the racing community together with his magazine. When you have drivers, owners, mechanics, sponsors, fans, all coming to one source, he was the nucleus that tied all facets of motorsports together in one entity. His editorial, his column, was very accurate. Doug was strong-minded and opinionated, but his opinions were accurate. This guy really knew what‘s going on. He was very well-informed.
“He would tell you exactly what he thought and not sugar-coat it, and I liked that. He believed strongly in things and 99 percent of the time he was spot-on with his thinking.”
“His legacy was the magazine itself,” said Ellis. “The fact that, after Open Wheel went away, for 20 years there was a magazine for sprint car fans. Without Doug, I‘m sure there would have been no magazine. It would have been easy to just let it go, but he kept it going for a long time, kept the tradition.
“He was persistent, dogged. He would never give up. That was how he operated. He was very loyal to me and I was loyal to him.
“Doug was someone you could never forget. For me, his passing is just hard to believe, hard to accept. All of us experience losing people around us and it‘s something you have to deal with. But Doug … this one hit very hard because this was a person who meant so much to so many people.”
“It‘s just hard to lose such a close friend,” Sinclair admitted. “Anytime I was in the Ohio area I always reached out to Doug and we‘d have lunch or ride to a race together.
“There was seldom a quiet moment when you were with Doug, he loved conversation and he loved telling stories. Those stories that found their way into print had a tremendous influence on me and I‘m so glad we all had the chance to read Doug‘s magazine for so many years.
“With his magazine, Doug increased my passion for our sport even more and a lot of the people who appeared in those stories became people I hoped to meet someday. It‘s kind of ironic; some of my closest friends today are those I first met through the pages of SprintCar & Midget.
“That‘s Doug‘s legacy, I think,” Sinclair added. “He made great introductions and he brought our sport closer together. That‘s a pretty good legacy.”
