CEDAR CITY — Former NASCAR driver Kyle Petty arrived in Utah on Saturday to kick off the 27th anniversary Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America, which will include a stop in Cedar City this year.
According to a recent news release about the event, Petty will be leading an entourage of more than 125 motorcycles on a weeklong 1,500 mile trek through Utah and Nevada, from April 29 through May 5. The event is designed to raise funds and awareness for Victory Junction, a camp dedicated to providing life-changing camping experiences for children with serious and chronic medical conditions.
In a phone interview with Cedar City News a couple days before the group made its way to Utah to begin the charity ride, Petty said the first half of this year’s trip will be spent in Nevada and the second half in Utah.
Petty spoke of how the ride has evolved since its humble beginnings in 1995.
“I think that first year, we raised $35,000,” he recalled. “There were about 30 or so riders and I figured when we got back to North Carolina, that was going to be the end of the Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America. That would be it. We never … nobody ever envisioned that this ride would become what it has become and do the things that it’s done.”
Petty mentioned several famous people who’ve ridden with him in past years, including golfer Davis Love III, Tony Stewart, Herschel Walker and the model Nikki Taylor.
“Celebrities have ridden with us and many regular people have come out and ridden with us all along the road,” he said. “All the hospitals we’ve been to and the schools we visited and the people we’ve met along the way … yeah, I would have never believed that, you know, 28 years later, that we’d still be doing it. But we’re still here doing it, man. And people in this country are caring and giving. And as long as they care about it, we’ll keep doing it.”
On Wednesday, May 3, the group is scheduled to begin the day near Las Vegas Motor Speedway before making its way north on Interstate 15 through Mesquite, Nevada and St. George, Utah. The riders are scheduled to arrive at SpringHill Suites in Cedar City on Wednesday evening at 6 p.m., when Petty and other noted participants will be greeting members of the public, posing for photos and signing autographs in the motel parking lot.
As noted in the press release, “Spectators along the 2023 route are encouraged to attend one of the Ride’s seven overnight stops or daily pit stops to greet Petty and the riders, purchase memorabilia and make donations.”
“We’re asking people to come out and say hello to us,” Petty added via telephone.
Petty said fellow motorists and other bystanders will undoubtedly notice the entourage as it travels along on the roadways.
“There’s 125 bikes, and there’s two up on a bunch of those bikes,” he said. “So that probably takes us to 175 or so. And then, we’ve got two full-time doctors and two full-time nurses that go with us. We’ve got four or five people on the hotel team. For our motor marshals, we have about six or eight retired North Carolina state patrolmen.”
All in all, he said, there will be approximately 230 people in the touring group.
“You’ll know where we are, and you’ll know when we get to town,” Petty said with a chuckle.
According to the news release, the celebrities scheduled to take part in the 2023 Ride include Kyle Petty’s father, NASCAR Hall of Famer and seven-time champion Richard Petty; along with NASCAR legends Ken Schrader and Kenny Wallace; former Formula 1, Champ Car and NASCAR driver Max Papis; former NFL great and Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker; and NBC Sports NASCAR personality Rick Allen.
After spending Wednesday night in Cedar City, the riders will spend Thursday traveling eastward across Southern Utah to Moab, where they’ll stay the night before heading back up to Salt Lake City to wrap up the weeklong event.
According to the organization’s news release, the Kyle Petty Charity Ride is one of the most successful and popular charity events in the country. Over the past 28 years, an estimated 8,875 riders have logged nearly 12.6 million cumulative motorcycle miles and raised more than $20 million for Victory Junction and other children’s charities. To learn more about Victory Junction, please visit victoryjunction.org.
For more information about the nonprofit organization Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America, including how to make donations, visit its website.
Photo Gallery
Courtesy photo of a previous Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America in Monument Valley, Arizona, date not specified | Photo courtesy of Kevin Kane Photography, St. George News Riders pass a bison during a previous Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America, location and date not specified | Photo courtesy of Kevin Kane Photography, St. George News Kyle Petty during a previous Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America, location and date not specified | Photo courtesy of Kevin Kane Photography, St. George News Kyle Petty greets throngs of schoolchildren during a previous Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America, location and date not specified | Photo courtesy of Kevin Kane Photography, St. George News Riders pass a redrock formation during a previous Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America, location and date not specified | Photo courtesy of Kevin Kane Photography, St. George News Kyle Petty poses with young Victory Junction camp participants, location and date not specified | Photo courtesy of Kevin Kane Photography, St. George News Richard Petty and Kyle Petty during a previous Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America, location and date not specified | Photo courtesy of Kevin Kane Photography, St. George News Kyle Petty leads a group of riders during a previous Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America, location and date not specified | Photo courtesy of Kevin Kane Photography, St. George News Kyle Petty signs autographs for high school students in Moab, Utah during the 2015 Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America | File photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News
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