Earnhardt's Final Autograph Brings $41,000 For
School
See also: Accident Articles February 26, 2001 by Kevin Sherrington, Dallas Morning News Colin and Amanda French just wanted an item for an auction Saturday benefiting Hillcrest High School and its little brother, Franklin Middle School. So they asked an old NASCAR friend for help, and he came up with a piece of history. A bittersweet one. A NASCAR memento seemed natural for the Frenches to seek. They had been involved in auto racing on several levels, once even sponsoring a team. But their only real contacts in the business now are an uncle and Todd Wright, who works on Joe Nemechek's crew. Wright agreed to take a racing helmet around and get a few drivers to autograph it at the Daytona 500. He collected 10 names, including Michael Waltrip, who would win the race the next day, and three-time winner Bobby Allison. But one of the fellows he asked Saturday afternoon was too busy at first. Later that night, after asking Wright what it was for, the driver told him to bring the helmet by his trailer. And so that's how it came to be that just above the visor, in a long, looping flourish, is the autograph of Dale Earnhardt.
Now a helmet autographed by one of NASCAR's greatest drivers ever was a prize all right, but before the autograph was 24 hours old, the helmet's value increased dramatically, and not for reasons anyone would have wanted. On the last lap of the Daytona 500, Earnhardt, trying to protect the lead of son Dale Jr. and close friend Michael Waltrip, lost control of the No. 3 car and drove it headfirst into a wall, killing him instantly. Even in their grief and disbelief, drivers remembered the helmet. A couple of them, worried what might happen to it on the open market, asked Wright what he planned to do. Wright told them he would do as promised and shipped it back to Dallas, where it now was the problem of Colin and Amanda French. What should they do? Should they put it in Saturday's auction? What about on the Internet? What if they waited a while, long enough to market it and maybe drive up the price? Who knew what Dale Earnhardt's last charitable act would bring? "It was a tough call," Colin said. "We promised a lot of people we'd have it for the auction, but we hated to undercut it, too." But promises, particularly to a dead man, must be kept. The helmet went in the auction. Just to make sure it wasn't overlooked, though, Colin e-mailed Jim Turner of Dr Pepper, Tom Hicks of the Stars and Rangers and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, all of whom live in Hillcrest's district. "We didn't want someone to get it who'll throw it out on eBay as soon as they could," Colin said. But he didn't want to shortchange the school, either. Last Wednesday, three days before the auction, Channel 8's Dale Hansen ran a story about the helmet. The next morning, Colin got a call from a North Carolina fellow who was in town for his daughter's birthday. He gave Colin a proxy bid. Then he called back and wanted to know if he could bid by telephone, his only prerequisite that he remain anonymous. Come Saturday night, as the Nolan Ryan baseball earned $300 and a ball signed by the Hillcrest football team drew $725, Colin was roaming a rental hall behind the convention center, trying to find a place where his cell phone could pick up a call from North Carolina. A couple of times, Colin lost his caller in mid-bid. But on it went. Up, up, up went the price. A fellow down in front, Robert Denman of Dallas, wanted the helmet, too, figuring to go partners with a friend who hauls a smoker around to race tracks. "I wasn't going for the helmet originally," Denman said Sunday. "But my fiancee and I were talking about how meaningful it would be. We knew how much the country had been moved by Earnhardt's death." A game in a Rangers' suite had pulled in the auction's top dollar: $5,800. The man on the phone was talking bigger money than that. Up and up the helmet's price climbed, past $10,000, $20,000, $30,000. "It was like watching a slow-motion tennis match," Collin said. Every time Denman upped the ante, the caller went one better. Nothing the school had ever auctioned was commanding this kind of price. Nothing even close. Denman, adrenalin pumping, out of his head and maybe his league, hit $40,000. "I was basically investing my whole inheritance in it," he said. The caller bid $41,000. Denman was about to make it $45,000 when his fiancee signaled enough. The helmet, which brought nearly half the proceeds of the auction, will be on display at Franklin and Hillcrest on Monday. Then it will be shipped to the buyer's home in Huntersville, N.C., just north of Charlotte, where it will serve a "private, dignified life," the buyer told Colin. Amanda French's uncle vouched for the buyer, calling him a big racing fan. As for what the school will do with its unexpected windfall, Colin said he'd like to see it go to an endowment fund. After all, who could have expected something like this? Who would have wanted it? "All of us would have taken a thousand dollars for the helmet," Colin said, "if it meant Dale Earnhardt were still alive." Source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sports_day/auto/297121_26sherr.html
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