My first nationals, in 1989, was of course an eye opening experience, one
because I had never seem anything like it and two I had never been west of
the Mississippi river. My second nationals, however, had a interesting twist
to it. I lost my wallet on the way to Salina thus I could not prove that I
had a valid drivers license at registration. I remember Kay Bailey did
everything she could to help me but I still could not prove that Mississippi
had not revoked my license for other minor offenses, but that's another
story.
My only option was to go to the local highway patrol office, which happened
to be next to the site in salina. I went in and asked the officer if he
could give me print out of my license so I could register for the race next
door, no problem right?? WRONG!! He said sorry you don't have any type of
identification so how do I know you are who you say you are?? Dead end.
Next I was off to the local police department. I explained my situation but
again no proof no print out. Dead end number two.
Now time was running out. Tech was going on and I ran first heat the
following day. Back to the highway patrol office in preparation for begging
or a quick exchange of money under the table whichever came first. Funny how
this sport can drive us into doing despicable deeds. Anyway the begging was
not going very well and I did not have any money for the under table deal as
I had no wallet. As I turned to exit the building dejected and devastated
two of Salinas finest walked up to me. They informed me that they had heard
my previous conversations with the officer and thought I might could use a
little compassion. They then asked me to write down my drivers license
number on a piece of paper. I did and off they went to the back office. A
few minutes passed and they returned with the holy grail, a print out of my
license. As he handed it over to me he said, sorry for the trouble the other
officer gave you now go out and win. That's exactly what I did as I won my
first nationals. To this day I will always regret not going back to thank
those officers but it's something I'll never forget.
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