Paul Dana, a 30-year-old St. Louis native and Indianapolis resident, made his Indy Racing League IndyCar® Series debut in 2005 driving the #91 Ethanol Hemelgarn Racing entry. Though he earned a top-10 result in his debut race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Dana's rookie campaign was cut short by an accident during practice for the Indianapolis 500 in which he sustained two fractured vertebrae, which sidelined him for the remainder of the season. Dana will keep his rookie status as he returns to the cockpit for the 2006 campaign.

"It was amazing to make it to the IndyCar Series – truly a dream come true," Dana said. "Unfortunately my first Indy 500 start will have to wait one more year, but I've got a great group of sponsors in the Ethanol industry and they are behind me 100% while I work through my rehabilitation and get back into the car."

Dana's career took a big step forward for 2004 when he was signed by Hemelgarn-Johnson Motorsports to contest the entire Menard's Infiniti Pro Series, the Official Development Series for the IRL IndyCars. He rewarded team owners Ron Hemelgarn and Roger Johnson by finishing runner-up in the championship. It was the best result for the team in their four-year history in the formula.

In 12 races Dana finished in the top five seven times, including four seconds and one win – which came on the challenging one-mile oval at Milwaukee. Dana qualified on pole at the season opener in Homestead and had two-other front row qualifying efforts, including starting outside pole at the Freedom 100 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He led comfortably in three races (Homestead, Milwaukee, Pikes Peak), ending up second in number of laps led.

The 2003 season marked the Indy Racing League debut for Dana. With primary backing from the Ethanol industry, Dana earned six top-10 Infiniti Pro Series results in ten starts of the 2003 season, placing ninth in points despite missing two rounds. The season also marked the first year of oval racing for Dana, who came up the ladder through the tradition road-course ranks.

In 2001 Dana raced for CART team owner Gerald Forsythe in the U.S. FF2000 National Championship as a member of Forsythe's prestigious driver development program. Additional backing came from Klein Tools, CAPCO Abrasives and Mate Precision Tooling. In just 11 starts in his rookie year in the category, Dana scored one podium, two top-fives and four top-10s. His best finish of third came on the road course at Watkins Glen, and he finished fifth in his oval debut at Indianapolis Raceway Park's "Night Before the 500." Dana also made his U.S. F3 debut, finishing second at Mosport Park.

During the 2001 season Dana lived and worked out of the Pittsburgh race shop of his engineer, John Walko. As a mechanic on the SCCA Formula Continental car of Mike Andersen (an identical car to the F2000 cars used in the pro series), Dana contributed to Andersen's second SCCA National Championship.

Dana got his start in racing in 1996 by working as a mechanic at the Bridgestone Racing School in Ontario, where he won his first races. The training program there paid in seat time instead of cash. Without family financial support, it was the only way for Dana to get behind the wheel of a racecar. When he wasn't driving, Dana built gearboxes and did other racecar preparation work.

In 1998 he moved to Indianapolis and began competing in Skip Barber Formula Dodge, earning 6 wins, 7 poles, 5 seconds and 5 thirds. Finishing in the top 20 nationally out of more than 700 competitors, he earned an invitation to the inaugural Formula Dodge National Championship.

Dana is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. While climbing through the racing ranks he has held a host of different jobs, including working as mechanic, a private racing coach, a driving instructor, a PR & marketing account representative, and as an editor and journalist covering the sport. His written work has appeared in AutoWeek, Sports Illustrated and Maxim.