Auto Racing

Kenny Wallace has been a pretty popular racer, he never realized to just what extent his popularity reached. Fans began a fundraiser to raise money to send Wallace to Nationwide road race in Montreal on Aug. 30, due to the fact that Wallace’s sponsor, the U.S. Border Patrol will only sponsor events in the U.S.

“I was just sitting here thinking if 5,000 fans each contributed 20 bucks, that’s $100,000,” said 64-year-old Jim Ryan, a retired car salesman from Cullman, Ala. “We ought to be able to get him to Canada to race.” Wallace was astounded by the proposal and denied at first, saying “No, the economy is too bad.” Ryan persisted and he  put together the fundraiser. “I think everybody around him was telling him, ‘No, you can’t do that. It won’t ever work,’ ” Ryan said. “But Kenny’s got one of the most positive attitudes of anybody in the racing business. He says what he feels and feels what he says. I think he’s genuine. That’s really what made me want to go ahead and push him.

“I kept telling him, ‘We can, we can. We can do that,’” Ryan said. “Then other people started saying, ‘We can do that.’ Somebody said he would chip in $20, another said he’d give $50, and it just went on from there.” Wallace will be racing a custom car and it will carry a paint scheme designed by Wallace listing each participating sponsor’s name on the No. 28 Chevy. The goal is to raise $100,000 by Friday’s cutoff date. They are only $10,000 short. To donate your funds, go to kennywallace.com