Children’s Hospital to Benefit if Wilson Wins Showdown Bonus
The 2nd Annual Winter Showdown for the SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour at California’s Kern County Raceway is already a big enough event on its own. Add in the potential $10,000 Speed51.com/Coors Light Bonus and it’s even bigger.
Donnie Wilson is one of 10 drivers nominated for the final eligibility spot for the bonus, and if he wins the fan vote and the race, he has some big plans for that $10,000 check.
Wilson, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma said on his Facebook page that he plans to donate the $10,000 to the St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.
“I just want to do something nice for other people,” Wilson told Speed51.com powered by JEGS. “If I’m lucky enough to win the race that’s thirty grand. That extra ten grand would just be bonus, so I’d really like to donate that.”
Wilson said he often drives by the St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee on his way to and from each Southern Super Series race he goes to, and that influenced his decision to donate his money to pediatric cancer research.
“Running up and down the road as often as we do racing I’ve passed that place a lot of times,” he said. “It makes you think about how lucky we are to do what we do and how fortunate we are. So I like to take the time out every once in a while to help these unfortunate kids.”
The 2015 Southern Super Series runner-up skipped last year’s inaugural Winter Showdown that was won by his SSS counterpart, Bubba Pollard. Wilson said he may not have won last year, but he said he still probably should have gone and added that there was no way he was missing this year’s race.
“I think it’s a cool deal that they’re having that race,” Wilson said. “I think that Super Late Models should have more big races like this. I wanted to go last year and I should have gone. It’s a different race track and I always like to go somewhere new. It’s a great venue and I think that race is only going to get bigger and bigger. I think it’s a cool event that they’re putting on so I want to go out there and see what we can do.”
Wilson said that he’s gotten a lot of positive feedback on social media since he announced his intentions, but he said that his goal in doing this wasn’t to be praised. He said it’s to just raise awareness and money for a good cause.
“I think we just need to get the word out so that everyone can chip in and help out these unfortunate kids when we can,” he said. “For my fans, I wanted to do this to help make people more aware of what we can do as human beings to help out people fighting these diseases and stuff like that.”
For Wilson, he said getting a chance to help out in this way would be bigger than winning the race.
“Every race we go to we want to win, but I think it would really be a cool deal to give them a check for 10,000 bucks,” Wilson said. “I think for me that would be cooler than winning.”
Voting for the Speed51.com/Coors Light Bonus will end on January 20 at 11:59 p.m. ET, and the winner will be announced Monday, January 25 at 5 p.m. ET.
The 2016 Winter Showdown will take place on February 26 & 27 at Kern County Raceway Park in Bakersfield, California. The winner of the event is guaranteed a $30,000 check.
-By Rob Blount, Speed51.com Southeast Editor – Twitter: @RobBlount
