What Racing Souvenir(s) do you treasure the most?

I've been a collector of "things" ever since I was a kid starting with matchbox cars, bottle caps, and then beer cans. I went on a long drought before collecting anything until I started collecting NASCAR diecasts. Now I pretty much collect only rare items, mainly stock car related, and most of them sit in my closet until the day I have my own office where I can display them, none of which I have any real attachment too other than they are old and cool looking. Do they make me happy? No, they are just cool looking. I suppose I collect these things to bring me back to a simpler time, reflect on history, take me out of the here and now to relive the moments in my imagination.

My favorite item is a thick cotton rug of the Wood Bros. 1976 Mercury Montego with David Pearson embroidered signature. The item is unique in that I have never seen one before, it's nearly new, and I am a big Wood Bros. and David Pearson fan. I have many other cool items but that Wood Bros./Pearson rug is pretty cool. Where is a picture you ask? It's up in the closet with the rest of my "things" and will probably never see the light of day until my family
has an estate sale.

Here a a couple of other things, the flag was on Tony Stewart's limo when he won his first Cup, the second is a large advertising of a local race, though I do not know what track, state, etc.

What is your

favorite racing souvenir?

updated by @jim-wilmore: 06/05/20 12:59:06PM

Oh how I wish I had been a collector. I would love now to have a few of the things...mostly cars (even toys) that I destroyed and discarded /sold throughout my life. My mother was/is a pack rat (hoarder) and I think that has had an effect on me. But, I went too far and kept almost nothing. I even gave away and threw away most of my trophies thinking my memories were enough. I hocked my high school class ring...probably to buy something for a hot rod... or beer.

But one that I kept is probably my most treasured item. It is a trophy for winning the Southeastern Pro-Am Motocross Championship in 1985. I have it proudly displayed int my office....its pretty rough looking, but I'm keeping that one.

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Founder/Creator - RacersReunion®

If I had only known. I never saved anything. Not really a "souvenir", but I do have 5 vintage unworn 1981/1982/1983 Wrangler/Earnhardt blue & yellow pit crew shirts in the original plastic bags. I was also in 1981 given a Wrangler Racing Team Manager sierra silver belt buckle that I treasure.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

It's ironic that those of you that lived it didn't save much and that's usually the case however, the children, grandchildren, and people like me that try and find some form of connection to the past hold these items in high regard. And maybe that's why I like collecting, because of that "Connection to the past".

I do have one other souvenir from the early years at Darlington Raceway, it's a silk scarf with images of stock cars, flagman, and fans on it, definitely post WWII era thinking behind it, the silk that is. Maybe I should contact the HOF and loan them a few items.

I myself have been a huge collector over the years. Although I sold many of the rare diecast that I once had. I still have many books, postcards, photographs, programs and racing magazines. I don't have anything that is my personal favorite and nothing I have is very large. But I guess all of what I have are my favorites. I'm a huge coin collector and music collector but my racing collection is my pride and joy. Anything that I can collect that has something to do with Occoneechee/Orange Speedway or is an actual artifact from the speedway would always be the last to go if I had to sell my collection. The one thing I found out about collecting the books, postcards, magazines,etc. Is that they take up alot less room than the diecast. The one thing I really agree about what you said Jim, is that looking at these things make you go back to a simpler time. I feel the same although I was born in 1975. I always wish I could have lived back when times were simpler. My childhood in the 1980's was the greatest but I know when I listen to my dad and my elders that back when they were kids it seem like an even more fun time.

When I think of souvenirs, I think more of what the average fan could have bought way back when, and there was not the saturation of non-realistically collectable items. I have a very rare post card collection that was sold by Charlotte Motor Speedway back around 1970-71,and was drawn by artist Sam Dunn and printed by Anderson Pressand shows comical cartoons of drivers at Charlotte Motor Speedway. I have an extensive program collection which I'm proud of. Also, a lot of the older post cards when you had to get them from a team after a race. A lot were photographed by Ray Mann and Don Hunter. I have a Charlotte Motor Speedway cushion from some time between 1060-64 when they changed logos. I also have some speedway ash trays. Darlington always had more souvenirs than other tracks, and now I try to find them even if they are a ceramic tea cup or plate.

As far as the more collectable things,I have items from the NASCAR Speedway Division, NASCAR Drag Race Division, and old brochures. I have a poster, ticket order brochure and entry blank for the first Southern 500,a NASCAR Drag Race trophy, some entry blanks from 1947 that are posted in my photos, NASCAR arm bands record albums, PDA key chains,and much etc. I love these older itmes and maybe they can help put my son through college one day. I can't see them all every day but as a collector, it's just something knowing that you have them. I hope that one day I don't end up on Hoarders!

I forgot I have the winning sponsor's trophy (in the shape of the state of Virginia) for the 1986 Miller High Life 400 on the old Richmond half-mile. It was presented in victory lane of Kyle Petty's 1st NASCAR win (in the Wood Brothers' #7 7-Eleven car) and made him the first 3rd generation Cup winner and Richmond the only track where 3 generations from the same family have won a Cup race. That win came in the aftermath of the infamous carsh of DW by Dale, Sr. in the closing laps, a wreck that somehow 3rd & 4th place runners Geoff Bodine and Joe Ruttman also managed to run into a few seconds after the fact, leaving 5th place runner, KP free to cruise home under yellow and collect his first win.

Also, I wish I had never thrown away my Darlington seat cushion when it wore out thatI purchased at the 1966 Southern 500.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

I will post a picture of the David Pearson rug, Hard to pick one thing. Go to my pictures and a few things are there.

Clocks from David & Woodbros. Shirts,Pants. Sheet medal. Spark Plug.Tires,Books,ATV set from Glen Wood,

I also have Baseball Card,Baseballs Autographed <350> <Most all Mickey Mantles> Guitars,& More. Most of it is Junk.

Thanks

Harlow Reynolds

Lynchburg,Va.

My most prized racing souvenirs were model cars that I had collected over the course of my childhood. They were mostly thrown away stuff that I'd barter from friends, and some I'd get for birthdays and Christmases, but they were almost all round-track stuff. I 'played' race-cars with them, sometimes on the clay floor of my grandfather's garage, ("Concord Speedway") under the shade of a special live-oak tree in the vacant lot next door, and sometimes in my room.

Some did not have wheels, some did, but such trivia didn't matter. Eventually, I had enough to have different divisions....jalopies, modifieds, and late models. My drivers had names, and hometowns..some were "from" Concord, Deep Gap, and Raleigh, NC, while others were from Camden, Charleston, and Myrtle Beach in SC. I would type the "results" of my races, which no reader (other than me) ever read. I had a PA system based on a science project that would allow me to "broadcast" over a transistor radio. One of my late models was a Dodge Daytona! Many were '40 Ford coupes, and even one '40 sedan.

When I left home, for college in the early '70's, my brother, 11 years my junior, 'snuck' into my room and destroyed every single one of them. A childhood collection was lost, wiped out...not one single piece for fragment survived. I can still 'see' them and remember most of the imaginary driver's names and it's a very fond memory, indeed!

That had to hurt.


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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

Probably my most prized is an autographed Dale Earnhardt Maxx card. I sent it to the DEI shop for Dale Earnhardt to sign. I wrote a nice letter telling him he was my favorite, that I enjoyed watching him race and congratulated him winning the Daytona 500. The last sentence in the letter I said, "My only request is that you please sign this card and I do not care how long it takes. I know you got things to do. Just please send it back signed."I sent that card sometime back in 1998.

A year later while I was in college I got a call from my Mom. "You got something from North Carolina." Sure enough it was the self addressed stamped envelop I had sent and wouldn't you know the price of stamps went up and the Intimadator was even nice enough to chip in the $.02. Opened it up and it was my card signed. I never got to actually meet Dale but that little interaction I had through the mail was memorable as is the signed card. Took me a year to get. Thats why when I try to get driver autographs I am as patient as can be. I see people get impatient at the track and I tell them, "you think thats long for an autograph, try a year"

I TREASURE THIS A LOT BECAUSE IT IS SIGNED BY ALL 3 PETTY,S.....RP,KP,AND LEE

I've got several souviners from my time involved in racing. It would be hard to pick a favorite. I have a Talladega victory lane hat signed by Dale Earnhardt and Richard Childress, a Geoff Bodine signed victory lane hat and a Jody Ridley signed hat. I have numerous signed photos, RPetty, DW, Cale, and Neil Bonnett are my favorites there. I have my original Holman-Moody Jacket from'69 or so. I had a fender off ofPearson's #17Torino when he wrecked in Atlanta nad a McCleren Front endbut both were lost in clean ups while I was away. I have my ticket stub from Lakewood when I got towatch Curtis Turner win. I have so many press packets that I don't even knowwho all I do have.And I have so much more that I can't think of. One of my most prized souviners is a photo of Fred Lorengen and myself.

In talking to Pearson soon after thenostalgia craze started he said that he had recently carried boxes of post card type photos to the dump.

Boy i have manage to Collect a lot of stuff over the years a lot got gone but some got saved one of my treasures is my old motorcycle from 1968 how i hung on to that dam old thing i have no idear it should have been trashed years ago but about 10 years ago i needed something to get Ray Fox to sighn when we were going to Daytona for the LLOAR show and over the years iv got about 55 drivers autograths on that old helment its under glass i love it

That was a Motorcycle Helmet

Somewhere lurking in the depths of my closet is my original Kil-Kare Speedway official "Track Crew" shirt. Of course, I couldn't begin to fit into it anymore - it's amazing how old items of clothing shrink right there on the hanger. That's about the only real chunk of memorabilia I have left from my "track" days. However, I DO still have the one part of racing history that I recently rediscovered - my cache of 35MM negatives. I was sure those were long gone - but by some miracle I found them in a very old storage box. The really cool thing about those types of souvenirs is that, through the wonders of the Internet, and this even more wonderful Racers Reunion web site, I can share all of those memories with all of you. That makes all the time scanning, editing, researching and posting really worth it. I've met some really terrific people here.Thanks.