Driver autographs

[Eric Wettschreck]

I was cleaning out the basement the other day and ran across a big chunk of my childhood. Remember back in the day of NHRA when all the drivers had a little tent set up by their car, and it was full of FREE pics of burnouts, key chains, and cool stuff? I do. Drivers were more approachable then and I got a lot of them autographed.

I have The Snake, Hoover, The Mongoose, Roland Leong, Bobby and Danny Picket, Gartlets, Bernstein, Lee Shepard, John Hagan, and Halliday. Plus, I have an autographed poloroid of me sitting in Prudhommes car as a kid. That was cool.

More recently I have a lot of autographs from late model drivers. Birkhoffer, Mars, Tim McCredy. Donnie Moran, and Josh Richards.

What autographs do yous guys have? Or, how many drivers have you met?

[Wanderer]

Kewl.

I have a few pieces of autographed Tony Stewart gear and a Richard Petty cereal box though I've never met either.

Your list of NHRA drivers and their approachability rings a chord with me now though. I was recently in Brainerd and went by the old Bonanza on 371 and told my wife how we at dinner there one night after the races at BIR and there were several of those guys sitting together by us.

I think it was The Mongoose who was the first to break 280 at that time and I had his shirt on with the 280 mph claim. He said I'd need a new shirt pretty soon.

[PierBridge]

"The Thrill", "Holeshot Hill", and "Fast Eddie".

Or as we named him him "1st in the 4's Hill~"

Eddie @ Ercie Hill were our favorite by a long short, just plain ole great down to earth people.

We always looked forward to stopping by there tent and shooting the baloney with them.

Kind of blur but those sure were the days of NHRA~

[PierBridge]

I almost forgot I have $300 autographed Hill Picture ...

[PierBridge]

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"Drag Racing from Creative Mobile(NitroNation)"

[harvey lee]

Over the years, have talked to many drivers at Brainard. Also talked with quite a few and have thier autograph from the NASCAR Sprint series.

When Clint was younger, we went to brainard all the time and we has a few stacks of NHRA magazines that we threw away some years ago. Kinda wish we still had them to look back at some of the newer drivers then who are stars now.

When we were in Bristol for the Cup race a few years back, Mark Martin won the pole and my wife and I got our pictures taken with Mark during the pole award ceremony.

Bristol does not offer pit passes as there pits are so small. We had VIP passes so it was a riot going in the pits as tthe only ones in there were a few people with VIP passes and the race teams and one had access to about everything. Diane also had her picture taken with the Waltrips, the King and JJ and Gordon. This was a trip of a lifetime.

That was through a deal with Coor's who sponsors that pole award. They also gave us both a autographed Coor's flag from the award ceremony. It was a cool deal for sure.

Then both my wife and I had the opportunity to climb up into the flag stand and flag a few qualifing runs at Bristol. This was a trip of a lifetime for a race fan.

I will have to see if I can did up the photo's of the both of us up in the flag stand flagging the qualifing.

My wife Diane and I are to the right of Mark.

Diane flagging while Kyle Busch and JJ qualified. It was a longer climb up the ladder to the flag stand than it looked like.

[JPenny]

Several years ago, my wife and I flew into Milton Lake in northern Manitoba. When we walked into the lodge, my wife elbowed me and said, "isn't that Ryan Newman?" Then, 2 guys from Toronto walked right past him and asked me for my autograph. Ha! A bit later, Ryan and I got to talking and compared baits. He ate dinner with us every night. He's a darn good fisherman too. Loves to throw topwater lures. The next spring Ryan won the Daytona 500. I don't have an autograph, but I do have a couple of Ryan's lures in my tackle box and he has some of mine in his. Also, a photo of us fishing. Good guy.

[harvey lee]

That had to be fun hanging with Ryan.

[lawdog]

I wouldn't mind having a Clint Hatlestad autograph...I don't have any others.

[harvey lee]

Jeff, what size shirt do you wear? I will see if Clint has one that size and get him to sign it buddy.

Then, of in the mail it will go.

[JPenny]

Ryan Newman was a heck of a nice guy. He didn't come across like a big shot millionaire, which he certainly is. We talked a lot of fishing, and he showed us the photos on his camera. The big pond at Daytona with a 7 lb bass. Another big one he caught at Talladega. And many more. He had not fished for pike much and was full of questions for me. Come to think about it, I don't have Ryan's autograph, but he has mine. I autographed one of my books for him.