Horsepower of all kinds prevailed in Saratoga Springs Sunday when the Kyle Petty Charity Ride made an overnight stop in the Spa city on day two of the ride from Maine to Florida.
One racing photographer even got a shot of Richard Petty with a young boy who turned out to be the son of superstar jockey Angel Cordero, long a favorite at the picturesque Saratoga “flat track.” While the youngster was healthy, the shot told the story of the ride: adults, many famous, coming together to benefit children.
Sunday evening, the Saratoga Automobile Museum hosted a dinner for the riders and associates of the evening’s sponsor, Keeler Motor Car Company, with the proceeds going to a local charity, the Double “H” Hole in the Woods Children’s Camp. But to us, it felt like a day at the races.
“I haven’t done the ride in three years, because I’d been every way I could from the West Coast to the East Coast,” tipped former Northeast modified and Nextel Cup driver Steve Park. “When I heard north to south, I had to go again. I did a lot of racing in New Hampshire and New York, and I was really excited to come back.
“We love raising money for the kids. When your legs start hurting and your butt goes numb, you think of what the kids are going through and it’s all worthwhile.”
Everyone we spoke with shared that sentiment, though Eddie Gossage, Texas Motor Speedway president and lover of all types of racing, had the most unique description of the charity ride.
“It’s really a tour of America’s gas stations,” offered Gossage with his usual grin. “We go from one station to another and make new friends at every stop. This is the shortest ride I’ve been on, around 2000 miles instead of 3,500, and it’s great. In our society today, you get on a plane and fly to where you’re going. This deal has taken us to the Grand Canyon, Mt. Rushmore, the Black Hills and now Saratoga Springs. We get to see America instead of being in a rush, all for a great cause.”
And when we suggested that being away from the phone for a while wasn’t bad either, Gossage never missed a beat.
“Bruton Smith will probably read this, so we can tell him I’m away from the phone, but I’m networking and talking to potential sponsors. But it is nice to be away from the phone.”
Longtime Pennsylvania racing photographer Kevin Barnes probably gets the most unique look at the charity ride, as he and Kevin Kean serve as the ride’s photographers.
“We do media relations, photographs for the riders, pictures to be downloaded off the Internet — anything that’s needed,” says Barnes.
The one thing they don’t get to do is ride motorcycles. “We ride in a van,” Barnes says. “Kevin had done it for a couple of years before I started, and he found that a mini-van is the best platform to shoot from. We can leave the back gate up and the side doors open for side shots and it keeps us out of the rain.”
With the Nextel Cup drivers not yet on the ride due to working their day jobs in Chicago, Petty was the evening’s featured speaker. He gave a nice summary of the ride, his family’s devotion to the cause and how he appreciated everyone participating. But the phrase that struck us was, “We’ve got doctors and lawyers and Indian chiefs — all kinds of people coming together for a great cause. And we’re enjoying it!”
Patti Petty, Kyle Petty’s wife, told the crowd that she’d “been following the King for the last three days and it’s a tough act to follow,” something a number of drivers who have filled the seat of the No. 43 will attest to. But she went beyond that and saluted her mother-in-law as well, explaining that Linda Petty “taught me how to be confident and deal with things like this. Together, we’re touching children’s lives every day, and that’s what it’s all about.”
Linda Petty, in turn, related her memories of racing at the nearby Albany-Saratoga Speedway when it was asphalt and part of NASCAR’s annual Northern Tour. But she didn’t dwell on the racing. Instead, she related how the family went to the movies in Saratoga Springs one night and was intrigued by the famed mineral baths they passed on the way.
Most of the people in attendance didn’t even know there was a Northern Tour and that the NASCAR stars of the day had dueled on the short tracks at Fonda, Islip and Oxford Plains as well. But they did know that when Linda Petty told how impressed she was by the caring children along the ride route contributing their change so that other kids would benefit, she was speaking for them all.
The cars from Petty Enterprises may not dominate NASCAR the way they once did, but one would be hard-pressed to name a family that represents the sport anywhere near as well. If American racing had an official “first family,” it would have to be the Pettys.