Kyle Petty Charity Ride Diary: Day One

Sunday, June 23, 2002

Greetings from Jackpot, Nev.

Today more than 250 motorcyclists hit the road to officially kickoff the 2002 Sprint/Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America. The ride left bright and early, heading east toward Jackpot.

As they cruised across Northern California and Nevada, I was working my way through traffic at Sears Point. Our entire Petty Enterprises team had a great race today. Jerry Nadeau was awesome in his debut in the Georgia Pacific car. He was two laps away from winning and created a lot of excitement for all three of our teams.

John Andretti drove the Cheerios Dodge to a 10th-place finish and I had a wild day in the Sprint Dodge, moving up at the beginning, spinning out and then coming back to finish 17th.

Immediately following the race, I hopped on a plane to meet the charity ride in Nevada. The ride traveled 597 miles through two states today, which is more than I drove on the track during the race. They saw some pretty amazing scenery as they traveled from the vineyards of Sonoma through the snow capped mountains of Reno to the golden foothills of Nevada.

I first started the charity ride back in 1995. Its funny how it all came together. Back in 1994, my crew chief at the time, Robin Pemberton, and I decided to ride our bikes from North Carolina out to the Winston Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway. So a couple of us took off on our bikes, heading west.

By the time we got to Phoenix, the group had grown into more than 30 riders. So the next year, we organized the ride a little more formally and incorporated a charity aspect. Our first ride focused on small, local fundraisers in places like Huntington Beach and I think we raised about $20,000.

Since then, the ride has grown bigger than we had ever imagined. We've had more than 2,000 participants, traveled more than 20,000 miles and raised more than $2.5 million in our eight years.

Since the start of the charity ride in 1995, we've visited about 20 different hospitals across the country. On Thursday we added another hospital to the list when my teammate John Andretti, motorcycle artist Arlen Ness and I visited Children's Hospital of Oakland.

During the visit I hosted a live videoconference on STARBRIGHT World, a computer network that connects 95 hospitals in North America. STARBRIGHT World provides a way for hospitalized children and teens to communicate with kids across the country who face same or similar illnesses.

These videoconferences are pretty amazing. To be able to sit in a hospital in Oakland and talk with children in Ft. Worth, Chicago and Chapel Hill while seeing the excitement in their faces is a powerful experience.

The kids we videoconferenced with had a bunch of questions about this year's ride. They wanted to know where we were going, who was traveling with us and what we were going to do.

STARBRIGHT World adds a unique aspect to the ride because it really lets us reach hospitals beyond the route. Sprint and I have participated in several STARBRIGHT videoconferences in the past. Sprint provides the multi-million dollar network that allows these children to email, play games and communicate through videconferences.

Also during our visit, the Sprint/Kyle Petty Charity Ride presented the Children's Hospital of Oakland with a check for $15,000 and the STARBRIGHT Foundation with a check for $10,000.

I also made time this week to catch the San Francisco Giants take on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. During the seventh inning stretch, I rode my motorcycle out onto the field, straight to home plate and lead the crowd in singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." I even had the Giants' mascot Lou Seal join me on the back of my bike. Pretty cool.

Tonight we're staying at the Horshu Hotel and Casino (Rumor has it that there may be a Richard Petty slot machine down on the casino floor.) We're set for another early morning tomorrow as we make our way to Jackson Hole, Wyo. It will be my first official day on the road and I can't wait.

Until tomorrow,

Kyle