26th-May-20, 10:47 AM
The day I met "The King"...............
Richard Petty, 7 times NASCAR champion, 200 race wins including 7 Daytona 500s - the nearest thing to a motor racing god you will ever come across.
October 2017, we had been to the Darlington race, and were now running away from the approaching hurricane Irma. Stopped off at the (bankrupt and closed) Rockingham Speedway before arriving at the Richard Petty museum early afternoon.
It was a very varied collection, not just his cars but watches, guns and other stuff. Being late autumn we virtually had the place to ourselves and spent several hours there. It was nearly closing time when we left and ours was the only car remaining in the extensive car park. As I sat with the car door open setting up the GPS for our next stop I heard the glorious rumble of a big V8 engine and glanced across to the exit where a black Dodge Challenger was just leaving. It stopped at the exit, turned round and drove over to us, the window lowered revealing a familiar stetson hat and dark glasses....the King himself!
He shook hands, thanked us for visiting his museum and stayed for about ten minutes chatting. He seemed genuinely pleased to meet English NASCAR fans and told us that he actually started the museum, which is housed in his original race shop, because he had collected so much stuff over the years he had to find somewhere to put it all.
We were really quite awestruck, can you imagine a famous F1 driver taking a detour to talk to you in a car park? Mind you, this is a man who has never refused to sign an autograph so perhaps we shouldn't have been surprised. A memory to treasure for sure.
Richard Petty, 7 times NASCAR champion, 200 race wins including 7 Daytona 500s - the nearest thing to a motor racing god you will ever come across.
October 2017, we had been to the Darlington race, and were now running away from the approaching hurricane Irma. Stopped off at the (bankrupt and closed) Rockingham Speedway before arriving at the Richard Petty museum early afternoon.
It was a very varied collection, not just his cars but watches, guns and other stuff. Being late autumn we virtually had the place to ourselves and spent several hours there. It was nearly closing time when we left and ours was the only car remaining in the extensive car park. As I sat with the car door open setting up the GPS for our next stop I heard the glorious rumble of a big V8 engine and glanced across to the exit where a black Dodge Challenger was just leaving. It stopped at the exit, turned round and drove over to us, the window lowered revealing a familiar stetson hat and dark glasses....the King himself!
He shook hands, thanked us for visiting his museum and stayed for about ten minutes chatting. He seemed genuinely pleased to meet English NASCAR fans and told us that he actually started the museum, which is housed in his original race shop, because he had collected so much stuff over the years he had to find somewhere to put it all.
We were really quite awestruck, can you imagine a famous F1 driver taking a detour to talk to you in a car park? Mind you, this is a man who has never refused to sign an autograph so perhaps we shouldn't have been surprised. A memory to treasure for sure.
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