David was a devout Christian. He was also, by my reckoning, a semi-devout sinner

He was known to have a good time and was pretty unapologetic about it. He never stopped, in the entire time I knew him, trying to convince me become a Christian. For the most part I admired his perseverance and really how he was at peace with being a devout Christian and also an absolute hell-raiser.

Case in point: Elkhart Lake Shenanigans

Road America used to be the "Let Your Hair Down" round of the championship. Sunday nights at Siebkin’s were hedonistic to a degree in terms of paddock people running around naked, being generally drunk and having a great time. One year, (I wasn't there, really, unlike everyone else who were there but now claim to have not been there) Ski borrowed a rental car from a media person (again, not me). He and, I think, the late Randy Renfrow took this particular borrowed rental car out on a Wisconsin back road, at night. The usual things occurred: broadslides at 70mph and the occasional rural mailbox was decapitated using the hood of the stolen, ah, borrowed rental car and velocity. Someone had the great idea to see how far they could drive without headlights on a back road. Shockingly, this ended badly with the car colliding with an object that was not easily decapitated. Was there a tree through the windshield of the car? Regardless, the car did not survive the crash and the pair decided to just hide it somewhere in the Wisconsin woods and let the insurance figure it out. Thank the Lord for insurance!

I think the plan was to ditch the car so well that it would not be found for days. However, two inebriated riders actually drove it up or down a short embankment that at night seemed like a great stash place (again, I was not there) but was in fact basically in plain sight. I'm not even sure the car stayed hidden until first light. The police might have discovered the car and finding no one in it made finding the person who rented it a RIGHT NOW thing.

The media person who rented the car was located by the police and this was all news (ha) to him. He'd left the car in the parking lot and had no idea where the keys were; guess he left them on the bar at Siebkin’s, or something. Other individuals confirmed his continuous presence, and due to the small and close-knit nature of the group in the paddock, known for their inability to keep a secret even under life-threatening circumstances, the culprits were quickly identified. Hey, guess what, the media person declined insurance when he rented the car, and since being an associate editor didn't pay squat, he wasn't buying a totaled car. Ski fessed up and said he'd handle it and he did. He called his banker, got a loan over the phone and wrote a check for the car. He made monthly payments on a car he only drove for an hour, in the dark with the headlights off.

Just the cost of doing business in being Ski.

(Triggered old guy alert: there are at least three and probably as many as five different versions of the above Ski rental car story from Elkhart.)