NASCAR Driver Kyle Petty and Herschel Walker Make Pit Stop in the Upstate

By Connie LeGrand
Anchor
Published: July 18, 2008

A superstar in NASCAR, Kyle Petty says it’s something he does every year in honor of his son, and the camp built in his memory. 
Petty’s son Adam was 19 when he was killed in a wreck during practice in May 2001.  It happened before a NASCAR race in New Hampshire.  As a tribute to him, his parents opened the Victory Junction Gang Camp in 2004.  Today during Kyle Petty’s annual motorcycle ride to raise money for the camp, he made a pit stop in the Upstate. 
Fans started showing in up at Pilot travel Center on Main Street in Duncan at 7:00 a.m. this morning.  The 14th Anniversary Chick-fil-a Kyle Petty Charity Ride across America riders rolled in about 9:30 a.m.  “You’d think we were out trying to drum up votes.  You’d think we were running for president the way we’re out talking to people; but we’re just trying to send kids to camp,” says Petty.
Two hundred motorcyclists travel 3000 miles from Michigan to Georgia to raise money for The Victory Junction Gang Camp in Randleman, North Carolina a place for chronically ill children.  It’s free to campers and their parents.  Petty says, “It shows parents out there, that there is a camp that they can send their kids to if they have Spin bifida or Hemophilia or juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, Sickle Cell, AIDS. We see a lot of different diseases.”
Fans also got to see fellow sports celebrity and football great Herschel Walker who said it’s his responsibility to give back because he has been blessed.  “I collect motorcycles, and I thought this was an opportunity to ride some of my bikes; and then I realized what it was for, and I got a chance to spend some time at the camp and I jumped on board, because this an opportunity to help a lot of kids get to do a lot of things they normally wouldn’t do,” says the Heisman Trophy Winner.
Race fan Karen Pressley just moved to the Upstate from Charlotte.  She was thrilled to get a peak of Petty. “This is great for the community.  I’m glad that we were able to do this,” said Pressley.
Petty says we are all on the same team when a community comes together for a good cause.
“See ‘ya”, he said as he rolled out on his way to Atlanta to continue raising money for charities that support children.