If you don't read
Cardboard History by Billy Kingsley, you are missing out. I pull up his blog at least once a day seeing if he has posted anything new as I like his style of writing, his passion, his amazing collection, and his great attitude. I sent Billy a small care package a few months ago with some early 1990 hockey boxes since I knew it would fit perfectly in his collection. He surprised me this week with an amazing card. This card has NASCAR, Bruce Lee, and Japan written all over it and those that follow my blog know that it is a perfect fit! Thanks Billy!
Here is the history of the card courtesy of Billy:
In 1996-1998 NASCAR ran 3 exhibition races in Japan. In the final race, Jeff Burton drove this car (depicted on the card) and Racing Champions included it in the 1999 lineup of 1:64 scale cars. Jeff did well finishing 4th and leading 14 laps. Racing Champions numbered the cards only on the package that year....this is #23 in the 83-card issue.
Wow, thanks again Billy, but I am "mad" at you. I spent the last 20 minutes on eBay looking at all the other cool NASCAR Japan stuff and have 5 new things watched.
Haha, glad you like it! As far as I know, this never made it onto any other cards so you now have a complete collection! Thank you for the praise as well!
ReplyDeleteThanks again!
DeleteVery cool. I have the die cast that went with this card sitting in my classroom. The car sat on a plastic stand... and your card slid into the stand and was sort of a backdrop for he car. I'll have to see if I have the stand and card laying around somewhere in a box.
ReplyDeleteOh wow! Makes it even cooler!
DeleteThis is a really neat card. I am slightly confused though, if the car was going to be driven in Japan, shouldn't they have chosen someone of Japanese descent to promote the car/race? It almost seems like it was a case of the good 'ol boys not knowing the difference between Chinese and Japanese, either that, or they just didn't think anyone would care.
ReplyDeleteI wondered the same thing. There must have been some Bruce Lee promotion during this time, but I couldn't find a reason yet. He has always been very popular in Japan.
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