Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
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My two son's and I take to camping at Knoxville for our annual Vacation. With them growing up it is valued time for me. This year was a reminder that racing people are some of the kindest and honest people in the world! My son's like to stock up on racing shirts for the winter. Our kind of school shopping. We went in to the track on Friday so we could get the shirts they wanted. We stopped and got our Swindell shirts, then on to Saldana shirts for my youngest. We purchased 3 shirts at the Saldana trailer $75.. Finished up the rest of our shopping and headed back to the campground (County park). I was carrying all of the bags. Later that day we were looking at our new shirts. Noticed that there was no bag from the Saldana trailer. Searched everywhere, it was gone. Two of the shirts were my youngest sons and one was the oldest (only shirt he could decide he liked). Told them that we would go in Sat. and I would buy them again.Can't really afford it, but they wear the shit out of their racing shirts! On the way in to the track to buy the shirts I stopped at the Godfathers vendor and asked if by chance I had dropped the bag and someone turned it in. NO BAG! On to the Saldana trailer. I told the guy working that I was back to buy the shirts again. I explained that I purchased 3 shirts yesterday and lost them. He asked how much I spent? I said $75. He said just a minute and walked to the back of the trailer, came back with a bag just like the one I had the day before, written on the bag was found shirts. He handed it to me and said that someone had turned it in to the trailer yesterday. I teared up thinking of how kind of an act it was to return them rather than just keep them. He did not know who had found them so I could not thank them. I ask at the ticket office if they would announce this story and thank you for me. They didn't. So this is my thank you to the kind and honest people at the Nationals! If anyone knows the person who did this I would love to be able to thank them personally!

My wife told me if I went to one more Sprint Car race 
she would leave me.................I'm sure gonna miss 
that ol' gal. 

Reconfirms my long held opinion that open wheel racing fans are some of the best people walking this earth!!!!

Follow me on the social medias! ; twitter - 
larryitis   Facebook - Michael Collins 

Good ending to your story.

Northern California Sprintcars

Similar story from this year for me. End of the show on Saturday night and i reached the back stretch gate and realized my phone was missing. There was a large hole in the pocket of my brand new shorts. My phone isn't worth 2 dollars, but losing it would not be good. You just don't know who is going to get a hold of it and what they are going to do with it. Went back to my seats and searched all over and retraced my steps. Finally my friend called my number and a gentleman answered. He was on his way to turn it in to the raceway office. He turned around, came back to the back stretch gate and gave it back to me. I thanked him for it, and wished i could have bought him and his wife a beer, but the races were over. So if you are reading this whoever you are, thanks again.

What a great story and yes sprint car people are pretty awesome!

About 6 years ago I went to a GSC race at The Thunderbowl in Tulare, CA! At the end of the race I realized that I couldn't find my camera. I was pretty bummed about it and wondered if someone had turned in it. I went to talk to someone who worked for the track and turns out I was talking to the owner. He said he was very sorry I couldn't find my camera and he didn't want my experience at the Thunderbowl to be a bad one. He asked me how much my camera was worth and gave me $200 of his own money for me to buy a new camera. I didn't want to accept it but he insisted and it totally made me believe there are still good people in this world! I go to the Tulare Thunderbowl every year for the Trophy Cup and it is one of my favorite sprint car tracks in CA!

Looking forward to the new Golden State King of the 
West series schedule! 

Winged sprintcars = the fastest and most exciting 
racecars on dirt! 

I'm with you. I hate wrecks. I want to see close racing and wouldn't care if they bent one piece of sheet metal at all.

Glad to see a positive thread for once...

Glad you got your t-shirts back (99.9% of the fans are good people that would turn in stuff like this to the ticket office).

Hope you and your sons had a great time and make it a tradition for many more years to come (my hope is that my son (age 9) continues to come to the races with me until I'm old an gray). Not many things that a dad and son can do together that last a lifetime.

Thanks for posting. Awsome.

Luna's Ford engine style that won 2 WoO titles and 3 
Kings Royals before a weight rule against the best EVER
in their prime and now DOMINATES super dirt late model
racing is no longer allowed/wanted in a WoO sprint
car.... Was Luna a miracle worker?

I had a similar experience at Knoxville about four years ago (during the nationals). I had lost my phone early in the evening and had not realized it yet. About half way through the program the track announcer requested I report to the ticket office. Being on the backstretch, it took a few minutes to get there, and all the way I was thinking that something terrible had happened with my son's family as they were travelling on vacation. Turned out the ticket office had my phone and had called the number I had listed as "home" to get my name. What a great feeling. Only problem was that my wife got upset that I didn't immediately call her and thank her for telling them my name!

So, Kudos to the unknown fan who turned it in, and to the folks at the ticket office who went the extra step to find out who I was!

That was part of my purpose. To spread some good news for a change! Thank you for your comments vande77.

I have been attending the Nationals since 1979. My oldest son has been going with me for the last nine years and the youngest for 6. It is a vacation that we all enjoy and hope never ends. We have even stretched it out to include Oskaloosa.

I hope you and your son enjoy many more!!!

Bob Booth

speeking of. i forget which Qual night it was D Clark pointed out a genteman that was apparently well intoxicated that a certain someone grabbed his wallet? I didnt see the event or find the perp in the crowd , he was obviously pinpointed to the entire audiance, I dont think this (buddy?) of his was even going to buy him another beer possibly with the speculation of what was really going on! , I had to chuckle the strong arm a voice on a PA has for someone, who needs security when you have thousands of eyes on you Glad the outcomes on the shirts ,phones and cameras have all been good. soo many have terrible outcomes, you can thank the parents/gardians,roll models of these thoughtfull individuals, it makes me proud to be part of sprint car racing knowing complete strangers have your backs , Glad to here the kiddos love the shirts for school thanks to my dad for taking me to the races as a kid my biggest hero wasnt Mickey Mantel, Wayne Gretskey, or Magic Johnson, mine was Doug Wolfgang! , lol, and to think my fifth grade teacher didnt know who he was , shame on her! musta been bad parents. lol

Thursday of 360 Nationals.

The guy they pinpointed was his brother (they came as a group). He took his wallet to keep his intoxicated brother from buying more beer....

Then the idiot forgot where they were sitting....

and the sage began...

Security did come up and have a talk with them as a group though, didn't see as much beer flowing the rest of the week...

Thanks for sharing otis. That is a great story. Makes me wonder why there are so many disagreements in racing, and then a story like this binds it all back together. Props to the Saldana trailer as well, for setting the bag of shirts aside for the proper owner.

The greatest knowledge is to know that you know nothing
at all.