Sign of the times: BMS set to sell pieces of history
By J.H. OSBORNE
Times-News
Bristol Motor Speedway will be selling the old banners from its grandstands during the NASCAR weekend later this month. Photo courtesy of Bristol Motor Speedway.
BRISTOL, Tenn. - Earnhardt. Petty. Allison.
Want to take home one of the biggest names in NASCAR - literally?
Fans who visit Bristol Motor Speedway next week will have that opportunity, for only $50, and the money goes to charity.
BMS has new signage to direct visitors around the speedway. More than 600 old banners were taken down to make way for the new.
And those old signs will go on sale March 24.
The sign sale will raise an estimated $30,000 for the Bristol chapter of Speedway Children's Charities, a nonprofit organization dedicated to distributing funds to qualified children's agencies in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.
The sign sale is generating a lot of interest already, said Barbara Kaiser.
"I've been getting phone calls and e-mails about them all day," Kaiser said Tuesday. "We didn't know how much interest we would have. We decided to keep the price low to move as many as possible."
The signs range in size from 3 feet to 12 feet.
Some driver's names will be harder to take home than others, based on supply, Kaiser said.
"There are fewer of the Earnhardt and Petty signs," Kaiser said. "Because, for example, we have a Kulwicki Grandstand and the Kulwicki Terrace - so there are tons of those. It just depends on how much seating is in each area."
Fans who want to buy a sign can go to two locations at the speedway to thumb through photographs of the available banners, which were cleaned and bagged as they were removed from grandstands at the speedway.
The signs were taken down as part of a routine update, Kaiser said - section names at the track are the same; only the signs are new.
It marks the first time BMS has sold items from the stands, Kaiser said. The only similar effort was the sale of dirt after dirt-track racing.
"We were talking about whether to do this, and someone said, ‘People bought dirt in a jar. I think they're going to buy these,'" Kaiser said.
The old banners from the BMS grandstands will be available to fans during the March NASCAR weekend.
They bear the names of the various drivers for whom the grandstands have been named. Up for grabs are some 600 banners boasting the names of Earnhardt, Kulwicki, Allison, Petty, Pearson, Johnson and Yarborough.
Banners are available by grandstand name, and if fans are looking for a particular section - perhaps the section they sit in at NASCAR events - those too will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
The banners are $50 each and range in size from 3 feet by 2½ feet to 12 feet by 3½ feet.
The banners will go on sale Friday, March 24, at 9 a.m. and will be sold throughout race weekend. Hours of operation will be 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 24; 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 25, and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. March 26.
The banners will be available at two locations at Bristol Motor Speedway: in front of the old ticket office inside the main entrance of the speedway; and in the display area, located in the area between the speedway and Bristol Dragway.
Credit cards (MasterCard, Visa and Discover) will be accepted, as well as cash and checks.
For more information contact Kaiser at 989-6975 or by e-mail at [email protected].
By J.H. OSBORNE
Times-News
Bristol Motor Speedway will be selling the old banners from its grandstands during the NASCAR weekend later this month. Photo courtesy of Bristol Motor Speedway.
BRISTOL, Tenn. - Earnhardt. Petty. Allison.
Want to take home one of the biggest names in NASCAR - literally?
Fans who visit Bristol Motor Speedway next week will have that opportunity, for only $50, and the money goes to charity.
BMS has new signage to direct visitors around the speedway. More than 600 old banners were taken down to make way for the new.
And those old signs will go on sale March 24.
The sign sale will raise an estimated $30,000 for the Bristol chapter of Speedway Children's Charities, a nonprofit organization dedicated to distributing funds to qualified children's agencies in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.
The sign sale is generating a lot of interest already, said Barbara Kaiser.
"I've been getting phone calls and e-mails about them all day," Kaiser said Tuesday. "We didn't know how much interest we would have. We decided to keep the price low to move as many as possible."
The signs range in size from 3 feet to 12 feet.
Some driver's names will be harder to take home than others, based on supply, Kaiser said.
"There are fewer of the Earnhardt and Petty signs," Kaiser said. "Because, for example, we have a Kulwicki Grandstand and the Kulwicki Terrace - so there are tons of those. It just depends on how much seating is in each area."
Fans who want to buy a sign can go to two locations at the speedway to thumb through photographs of the available banners, which were cleaned and bagged as they were removed from grandstands at the speedway.
The signs were taken down as part of a routine update, Kaiser said - section names at the track are the same; only the signs are new.
It marks the first time BMS has sold items from the stands, Kaiser said. The only similar effort was the sale of dirt after dirt-track racing.
"We were talking about whether to do this, and someone said, ‘People bought dirt in a jar. I think they're going to buy these,'" Kaiser said.
The old banners from the BMS grandstands will be available to fans during the March NASCAR weekend.
They bear the names of the various drivers for whom the grandstands have been named. Up for grabs are some 600 banners boasting the names of Earnhardt, Kulwicki, Allison, Petty, Pearson, Johnson and Yarborough.
Banners are available by grandstand name, and if fans are looking for a particular section - perhaps the section they sit in at NASCAR events - those too will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
The banners are $50 each and range in size from 3 feet by 2½ feet to 12 feet by 3½ feet.
The banners will go on sale Friday, March 24, at 9 a.m. and will be sold throughout race weekend. Hours of operation will be 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 24; 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 25, and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. March 26.
The banners will be available at two locations at Bristol Motor Speedway: in front of the old ticket office inside the main entrance of the speedway; and in the display area, located in the area between the speedway and Bristol Dragway.
Credit cards (MasterCard, Visa and Discover) will be accepted, as well as cash and checks.
For more information contact Kaiser at 989-6975 or by e-mail at [email protected].