By Sarah Handy, Staff Writer
It was announced this month by Victory Junction Camp located in Randleman, North Carolina and Richard Petty Motorsports that a special opportunity was taking place to get fans’ names on the No. 43 driven by Bubba Wallace, with a small donate to Victory Junction Camp.
Donating would help send a child to the Victory Junction Camp. Each child that attends is suffering from a serious illness but is given the opportunity to experience all that camp has to offer in a medically safe environment with no cost ever coming out of their parents’ pockets.
Kickin’ The Tires reported on the announcement in early September, but was later informed by Bryan Snare, who helps run the 43 group on Facebook, that he as well as other fans of Wallace and Richard Petty Motorsports all donated to the organization.
However, it’s not just the fact they donated at least $43 to a great cause, it’s that the group rallied together to raise $2,021 — enough to place the names of every single RPM employee on the car at Talladega for the October 13 race.
https://twitter.com/TeamFortyThree/status/1174404608208322560
When asked why the 43 group got involved in the donations, there were multiple, heartwarming responses.
- “I participated because my niece went to VJC several times and I know how much it means to her today as an older teenager.”
- “When we first had this idea, I was in 100%. A chance to support kids going to camp and the RPM family with every employee’s name on the car, so cool. This team has worked so hard and it is beginning to show on the track. We as a group wanted to show our #Support43 and are proud to do it. Go RPM and finish strong!”
- “I participated in this to thank RPM for their dedication to the #43 and to show support for VJC. Feel your hear race.”
- “I have been a fan of Petty since I was about 8 years old and I got to see Adam race at Memphis Motorsport Park. I love that the Victory Junction Camp is there to give kids the opportunity to be a kid. I am proud to show my support of RPM and VJC.”
- “My very first NASCAR race was during The King’s final season and I have been a fan of them since. To be able to support the team and Victory Junction has been a complete honor.”
- “This is an exciting time for our team!! Proud to support RPM, and proud to be a member of this group!!”
- “Moving mountains 43 dollars at a time.”
- “RPM and Team 43 give so much to NASCAR, I wanted to give something back to honor their team members.”
- “To honor Adam and help some more kids go to camp and to honor the team for all they do.”
- “I participated in this because I want the team to know we back them 110%. The 43 has been part of my life for a very long time and will always be part of my life.”
Mitchell Snare, Bryan’s son gained a lot of popularity among fans and throughout the garage area, especially in recent weeks. Mitchell is a huge supporter of not only Wallace but Victory Junction, RPM as a whole and the importance to keep Adam Petty’s legacy alive.
Bryan and Mitchell were both at Charlotte Motor Speedway last weekend. and took time to explain more in-depth their overall goals.
“We started the group to support Richard Petty Motorsports, however possible. Initially, we started by reaching out to sponsors, thanking sponsors.” Bryan Snare said. “We’d do giveaways for the sponsors on the car and then after we got through all the sponsors on the car we started going after sponsors that we just thought of and asking them to sponsor. We used the hashtag #Support43.
“Then it morphed into just supporting the team, moral support, cheering them on. His posters (Mitchell’s) became quite a big part of it. We started buying lunch for the team, many members would donate ten bucks and we would buy the whole team lunch, all employees, we’ve done that a bunch of times. I just had this idea about the names (On the Talladega car). We had somewhere around 42 different people donate $43.00 each, some of them more because some of them took more than one employee to get all 48 employees on the car.” Snare said.
The poster that Mitchell worked on and brought to Darlington Raceway was on eBay charities with all the proceeds going to the Victory Junction Camp. The poster has since sold for $300.00!
Mitchell’s first poster was Bristol last year. It came about because he wanted to meet Wallace. His dad saw a thing where you could buy a product at one of the NASCAR souvenir haulers and meet the No. 43 driver. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to get wristbands even though they knew someone – and they went to buy a product – but they had run out the wristbands.
Bryan then said to Mitchell, “I bet if you make a poster, supporting Bubba Wallace and Richard Petty Motorsports and I can get you in eye sight of him he’ll come over to you.”
The rest is history.
“Everybody with RPM, all the RPM fans, 43 fans, Bubba and the team there are great people and those are the kind of people I want to be around,” the young Mitchell Snare said, on why he is a 43 fan, why he thought the posters would be a success and Adam Petty’s legacy, “To support RPM, support Bubba. To help Adam Petty’s legacy, I want to see it succeed. It’s a place where people that may not get to go to every camp like me and you can have a great time.”
None of this was lost on Wallace, who said he thinks it is really special and mentioned other drivers talking about how cool it is to see fans wearing things supporting their favorite drivers.
“That’s really special. It’s cool. I think I saw a quote from Chase (Elliott) going into this race (The Roval) when you see people wearing your stuff that genuinely want to see you do well, that’s pretty special,” Wallace said. “The Forty-three group on Facebook, I appreciate you, they’re supporting us through the thick and thin and it’s really cool how they all came together to represent our race shop on our race car.
“The first one (poster) was Bristol of last year. They’ve been to a lot of races and it’s cool to see. First, I was like, ‘oh it’s a kid with a poster.’ I show up next week and I’m like, ‘is that the same kid with the sign, different car scheme?’ Then he showed up again and I was like, ‘it’s for sure him.’ They show up to a lot of races, big supporters on all social media outlets.”
Wallace said it will be an extra-special weekend at Talladega, when the paintscheme is debuted with the employees’ names and the design from the kids at the Victory Junction Camp. It’s something, he said, has never been done with the car before. He is also looking forward to bringing back a really fast car at the 2.66-mile superspeedway.
“First off, Talladega is such a wild card race for everybody,” Wallace said. “I’ve always said all the speedway races you enter into in the Cup series, any series, anyone has a chance to win. We’ve had really fast speedway cars this year and nothing to show for it. During Talladega earlier this year, we had a car that drove right up into the Top-5 but then wrecked on the ninth lap or so. We just have to pace ourselves; I’ve got to pace myself.
“As far as the paint scheme, the idea and the concept for allowing the kids to submit their designs and come together as one. We’ve never had Victory Junction just give freedom to the kids, let their creative minds speak, so I’m excited about that. Should be a good one.”
The Talladega car will be in action Sunday October 13 at 2:00pm ET for the 1000Bulbs.com 500.