The Darrell Gwynn Foundation will present select pieces of its Kenny Bernstein Personal Collection for auction, featuring some items celebrating the lifetime achievements of Dale Armstrong. The auction will be conducted both online and live by J. Sugarman Auction Corp. The online bidding segment is available now for registration and pre-bidding at www.jaysugarman.com. The live auction will begin Saturday, March 14, at 6 p.m. at Auto-Plus Raceway at Gainesville, rounding out a day of drag racing at the 46th annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals.
The auction will feature pieces of NHRA, NASCAR, and Indycar memorabilia and collectibles, donated by Kenny Bernstein, a six-time NHRA world champion and the first drag racer to break the 300-mph barrier. The impressive collection spans four decades of racing history and features Funny Car and Top Fuel dragster bodies, event winner’s jackets, framed art pieces, firesuits, helmets, trophies, and many other one-of-a-kind collectibles. The collection is unique in that many items are from Bernstein’s personal collection of memories and treasures from his racing career. Many items are autographed and more than 200 pieces valued at more than $400,000 will be auctioned.
“We’re excited to make this once in a lifetime collection available to the public via auction,” said Darrell Gwynn, founder of the Darrell Gwynn Foundation. “It was really an amazing gesture by Kenny and Sheryl to donate this collection to DGF. What’s more amazing are the incredible pieces of personal memorabilia from Kenny’s collection that fans now have access to. We have a true treasure trove of keepsakes, trophies, autographed memorabilia, Budweiser collectibles, and more. What an opportunity for race fans to own NHRA history and celebrate the career of a racing legend, my former teammate, Kenny.”
The collection was donated to the Darrell Gwynn Foundation with an announcement at the Gatornationals in March 2012. DGF staff transported the collection to its race shop in Florida and began the process of appraising, photographing, and cataloging all 1,500-plus items so they could be made available for sale. The most highly sought after, unique, and collectible pieces were saved to be put up for auction.
Online bidding: now available at www.jaysugarman.com
Live Auction: Saturday, March 14, 6 p.m. at Auto-Plus Raceway at Gainesville (Only those with Saturday tickets to the Gatornationals will be able to gain access to the live auction.)
Proceeds from all sales are tax deductible and benefit the Darrell Gwynn Foundation.
