Named to the Honour Roll in his graduating year, his thesis in sociology, "Prostitutes are Human Beings—An Organized Counter-Institution," written with Clive L. Copeland, was subsequently published by Random House in the 1971 textbook Deviance, Reality and Change, edited by H. Taylor Buckner.
Freely admitting he wasn't very good but noting that he was never black-flagged, McDonald went racing one night, only to be asked to fill in for an absent trackside announcer at Oswego Speedway on the shores of Lake Ontario in northern New York state.
Putting his journalistic skills to work in interviewing drivers and reporting from "the pits," McDonald proved to be successful and popular and did the infield announcing job at the "Home of the Supermodifieds" for close to 15 years.
In 1968, McDonald co-wrote, co-record and co-produced a campaign song for federal Progressive Conservative leader Robert Stanfield called "The Man From Nova Scotia.
[3] For his stories and columns on amateur/non-professional racing and racers, many of whom would never expect to be profiled in the country's biggest newspaper, McDonald was honoured in 2006 by being presented with the Canadian Automobile Sport Club's Media Award.