I'm not sure if this will be a weekly feature, but I thought I'd show off a few random things I have and talk about them. Here we go.
Ghost Ryder isn't the most well-known Monster Truck. To make an analogy- Ghost Ryder is like an indy wrestler or a Arena Football team- you might see them pop up from time to time in your area, but you won't see them too often on the big stage.
I saw Ghost Ryder in Columbia, MO a few years back with my sister and nephews. They had a lot of fun, and we met the drivers afterwards. That is how I got this autograph of our favorite Monster Truck that day (even better than Bearfoot)!
Speaking of Bearfoot- he would be like the Macho Man of Monster Trucks. Almost everyone has heard of him, but not as big as Bigfoot (who would be Hulk Hogan in this analogy).
This card (its a cardboard sheet about the size of a notebook page and fits nicely in a one-pocket sleeve), I had long before ever seeing Bearfoot. This photo is a newer (post 2000's) version which I don't care for as much as his earlier looks, but its still nice to have.
I don't have much to say about Tony Roper. To be honest, I grabbed this at my local Casey's Convenience Store who had a few sitting on the counter. A short time later, he died in an accident (he died on my sisters 23rd birthday- October 14th,2000). I don't remember ever seeing him race, but I just found something out while scanning this.
First- he is a Missourian. I never knew that or I just didn't think about it much. Now I don't know if I should put this in my Missouri binder or not. I think its in a good spot with other Motorsports so it can stay there. The other thing I noticed- Dr. J was the car owner! That is pretty cool.
Many may wonder why I root for Sam Hornish and this is the reason- a cardboard sheet. Well, there's more to it than that. I got this sheet at the Missouri State Fair, where this car was on display. I don't tend to root for drivers too long. I have guys I hope always do good, but usually change it up to keep me interested. This was about the 4-5th car I seen on display. Forgetting a couple I had also seen Bobby Labonte's car and Darrell Waltrip's Western Auto car before. I also enjoy see them in person.
Let's close up on an autograph.
If I remember right, I pulled this card in a box of racing repacks. Wallace is the youngest son of Rusty Wallace. Rusty should be (but I haven't done it yet) in my binder of Missourians, but Steven doesn't qualify. Steven was born in Charlotte, NC (which I would like to visit again), and has Tourette Syndrome. I haven't heard about him in a while so I looked him up on Racing Reference and see he competes in the CARS Super Late Model Series. I never heard of it, but I don't follow a lot of racing beyond the top tier NASCAR events and very little K&N results.
I'm sorry if it doesn't seem like I'm myself tonight (I'm not sure you can even tell through writing), but as I just started writing this, I found out someone I knew from school was killed from flash flooding in the area. She was missing for a day or two, and her passing was the first I even heard about it. I know most of my readers might not care about this, but I've always told myself that writing sort of calms me down and soothes me. Sometimes I look back at things I've written and try to understand my mood for that time, so this is a way for me to personally understand what was happening when I was writing this. Anyways, I was going to scrap this for tonight, but already had the scans loaded and felt it would make me feel a bit better writing. Which it has somewhat.
Thanks for reading, and have a good night.
Sorry for the loss of your friend.
ReplyDeleteI was watching the night Tony Roper had his fatal accident. You could tell it was bad, but he didn't actually die that night- he hung on until the next day, as I recall. You know it's bad when they don't show replays, and by the tone of the announcers' voices. Only once have I seen those things happen, and the car covered by a tarp, and the driver survived. (Steve Park at Darlington in 2002...and he nearly didn't, still hasn't regained his full speech ability and never will). His father Dean also died during a race, sometime between 2000 and 2002, but I don't remember when exactly, He actually suffered a heart attack, which killed him instantly, and he crashed due to the heart attack.
Thankfully, no one has been killed in the truck series since Tony, and only Dale Earnhardt has been killed after Tony. He's kind of forgotten, between Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin and Dale being killed all within 9 months.
The Steve Wallace autograph was from Series 2 of 2009 Press Pass, the only Series 2 Press Pass ever did. I pulled Casey Mears from my box, which is apparently majorly short printed...I've had 4 different people try to get it away from me.