While this isn’t a motorsports story per se, it still is a car story.
And let’s face it, racers and even non-racers like you and I are first and foremost car guys or car girls.
How many racers wanted to get into NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA or other motorsports series after watching a hot car parked in a lot or roaring down the street or freeway?
And find me a racer who doesn’t have a favorite street car of all-time.
You won’t.
That’s why this story, just in time for Father’s Day, is so heartwarming. Be forewarned: you might want to have a Kleenex handy when you watch the video, which has already garnered nearly 10 million YouTube views in a little over a week.
So as the story goes, nearly three decades ago, 8-year-old Mike King promised his dad Roger that somehow, someway, he’d get his father’s dream car, a 1957 Chevrolet Bel-Air for his dad’s 57th birthday.
Roger likely forget about his son’s promise, “but I never forgot,” Mike said in a post on Reddit.com. They’d even spend tons of quality time over the years looking at photos of the Bel-Air and other cars in magazines and books. It was their favorite way to spend time together.
(This is where you’ll likely start getting a lump in your throat.)
So after years of searching, Mike found just the right Bel-Air a couple of years ago in New Hampshire and brought it back to his Louisville home, where it sat in the garage until recently.
During their many get-togethers, invariably talking about the Bel-Air dream, Mike would secretly show Roger photos of what would soon be his car.
“We would talk about older vehicles so to gauge how much he would enjoy it, etc.,” Mike King wrote. “I would show him pictures of it from the listing I found, unknown to him that it would actually be his one day.
“He would get so excited and talk about owning something like that but that he ‘knew he never would be able to.’ Little did he know…”
Mike went on to say in his post:
“My dad has been everything to me, he is not my biological father but he IS my father. But this man in this video, my DAD my FATHER, was the best thing that ever happened to me and my mom and I hope I can be a fraction of the man that he is. My real father abandoned me and my mother when I was a child.”
So when Roger’s 57th birthday came around, the party was at Mike’s house.
It was in full swing when, while Roger was distracted to help fix a game board on Mike’s driveway, the younger King surreptitiously opened the garage overhead door.
When Mike’s sister told Roger that a part to fix the game was in the garage, Roger looked up and saw his dream car live and in-person.
(Trust me, it’s time to grab the Kleenex.)
The look on Roger’s face and his reaction are priceless.
But rather than us trying to describe it even more, click here to read Mike’s relating of the story, and then look at the video below, or watch the video first and then read the post. Either way, if a picture tells a thousand words, the video tells a million.
Lastly, great job, Mike. You outdid yourself as a son.
And to Roger, Happy Father’s Day, happy belated birthday and we hope you have many years of happiness with your dream car. You’re the envy of dad’s everywhere.
Follow me @JerryBonkowski
