Met Mr Martin at Carlisle this morning

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ragtopfury

ragtopfury

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Parked the Shelby and walked to the guest services building. Took us right past the set up where Buddy Martin is set up. He was alone just looking over his display board. Had a very personable 1 on 1 convo with him.

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A few years ago, Richard Petty was there. The line to meet him mid day started when they opened the gates. As much as he is my childhood hero, I was not going to stand in line for 4 hours in that heat for a 15 second hello. I did see him from outside his set up tho.
The following year, my son was in NC for work and detoured to the Petty museum. He said nobody was there and the lady at the door told him he missed the King by 10 minutes. He did get a personalized tour by one of the employees without asking for it and took him to "the other building" .
 
I hope you get to meet Richard Petty someday. He is a nice guy with a good personality. I've been fortunate enough to meet him twice in my life when he wasn't pushed for time.
 
That is an awesome experience!

I met the King in the pits at a NASCAR race a few years ago. Very nice guy but I only got to say hello and get a picture.
 
The first time I got to meet him and spend a little time talking to him was in the late 80's. He came to the New Asheville Speedway to endorse Bill Hendon when he was running for US Congress. I decided to go, and drive my Superbird I had at the time. I parked it in the pits, and Richard spied it as soon as he stepped out of the limo carrying the entourage. When I got to the table where all the hand shaking was going on, I told him if he had time, to come back to the pits and check out my Bird. He said, "Don't you leave! I wanna see it!" I told him I would, and after all the hoopla was done, he made a bee line to come see it. He asked a bunch of questions, told a few stories about his race Bird and his street Bird too. It was a good visit that I'll never forget. The next time was about 8 years ago when an ice storm went thru Randleman and I was overseeing some line crews getting the lights back on. I got to be the one that closed the switch that got his power on. This was during the time that his wife Linda was very sick, and Richards property maintenance guy had asked me to come let him know when it was back on. I stopped to tell him, and there sat Richard on the Gator with him. I asked him if he remembered seeing the Superbird at New Asheville Speedway, and he said "Yeah...that Lime Green one." I told him that was mine, and he grinned and said "Dang son, you done got gray headed!" We shot the bull for a little bit, and he handed me a pack of post cards he had sat and signed for all of the linemen and tree guys who worked to get the lights back on. He wanted me to be sure and thank all of them for the job they had done, and I assured him I would.
 
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