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*** Please read this whole message before replying because it contains a great deal of important information ***
As many of you know, Buzz-A-Rama "500" in Brooklyn New York permanently closed its doors in January 2021 after the tragic and unexpected loss of founders and beloved figures of the slot car racing community, Buzz and Delores Perri. Buzz-A-Rama "500" was a great and iconic model racing facility that hosted many important events in the 'heyday,' as well as serving as a living museum of East Coast slot car racing up to the last day that it was open to the public.
The sale of the building which was owned by Delores and Buzz is scheduled to be closed at the end of January 2022, and the Perri family heirs are furiously trying to clear out decades of Buzz's collection and stock and to save a unique collection of American Raceways tracks from the dumpster or worse, so the new owners may take physical possession of the building. See the other other Slotblog thread for details on this topic. I wish them Godspeed and the best of luck.
The sale of the Buzz-A-Rama building, the world health situation, and other factors denied the racing community the opportunity to have a memorial race to honor Buzz and Delores following their passing.
The following memorial race T-shirts were ordered and paid for some time ago with my personal funds. It is my understanding that additional shirts may be added and size quantiles adjusted before the order is finalized if preorder demand requires it. The company making the shirts is being very generous by putting the order on 'hold' in case a alternate memorial race materialized in 2021. The back of the shirt was to have information about that race added, but of course the race did not happen in 2021 and certainly not at Buzz-A-Rama "500". Just this past week I submitted the artwork for final art department "tweaking" with the goal being to have a digital "proof" before the end of 2021.
This is a low-res preview of the shirt. When the design has been processed and de-noised by the art and design department I will get a 'proof' showing the exceptional sharpness and attention to detail on the shirt while the printing has just a hint of distress as if a new shirt was put in a drawer since 1962 and never worn.
- At this time I cannot change the graphic or shirt color: All shirts ordered will be high-contrast white printing on a memorial black short sleeve shirt.
- This will be a strictly limited and numbered collectible edition with no more than "500" units of this style produced EVAH.
- If by some miracle the edition of 500 is a "sell out" by the pre-order due date (2/14), there will be an additional FREE promotion TBA but will be very exciting to most people in my opinion.
- Material will be a 60/40 cotton blend.
- The shirts run slightly large and after first washing will still have somewhat of a roomy fit. I do not have actual samples of the shirt you will receive but I have shirts made by the same company as promotional items for Hollywood movies starring Vin Diesel and the late William Paul Walker IV to drop but two names. My wife wears them a lot because she is a big fan of those crazy movies.
- The front says - Buzz-A-Rama "500" The Place to Race 69 Church Ave, Brooklyn New York
- The back says - In Memory of Frank "Buzz" Perri 1935 - 2021. We would have liked to include Delores also but the design is what it is.
- These are not the vintage shirts being offered on eBay with limited size availability. We offer all popular sizes.
I do not know if we can accommodate anything other than individual sales at this time. All sales will be base price (TBD but will range from $20-$25) plus shipping. International sales are welcome at an additional shipping cost plus applicable insurance, customs, and import duty fees. International clubs are encouraged to poll their members and submit one order to save shipping costs.
As anyone who has had custom shirts made knows, the quantity ordered raises or lowers the ultimate unit price. We will strive to have the final order quantity optimal so preorders will get the lowest unit price.
Any profit made from sales will be donated to the Genius Garage non-profit which has an ongoing STEM program with Downriver Speedway in the greater Detroit area to introduce young people to the mechanics and physics of slot cars and the skill, strategy and teamwork of slot car racing.
As an example, at the end of the 2020 STEM program the children completing all 8 of the weeks of the program end up with a take home flexi slot car that they built themselves from parts and basic hand tools. Each child also is given a plastic Plano brand pit box and some basic tools for slot car maintenance and an entry-level Russkit style Professor Motor hand controller that is appropriate for their car. All of this was accomplished through volunteerism, and donation of cash and equipment. The "graduation ceremony" was a race held by and for the children completing the STEM program on one of Downriver's 8-lane commercial tracks.
There is a video on their program on YouTube under user ID "Genius Garage." Due to the world health situation, it has been on hold since the COVID outbreak but it is expected to resume as soon as spring 2022. The minimum donation from proceeds of this memorial t-shirt sale to Genius Garage will be $1,000.00 but we would like nothing more than to add to this with your generous participation. The minimum donation of $1,000.00 to Genius Garage has already been made via PayPal which will appear on any statements or other documents as "Network For Good."
We are taking Buzz-A-Rama "500" memorial pre-orders for late Q1 (Feb-Mar?) 2022 shipping open now. All we ask is for those people that are interested to make a sincere commitment to buy what they have requested. Payment will be PayPal only "F&F" which in this case means Fast And Furious because I am using the same shirt company that produced the F&F 7 promotional shirts for that movie.
If you are interested in being put on the preorder list for a future purchase please reply to this thread with the following information (no PMs of any kind on this subject).
Your name or Slotblog handle.
Quantiy wanted of each size. Sizes available are: S, M, L, XL, 2XL (+$1), 3XL (+$1), 4XL (+$1).
USA standard t-shirt sizing conventions are used. The tails of the shirts are slightly long to avoid the dreaded plumber's crack.
No payment of any kind is wanted at this time. This is merely to gauge interest and set the final order quantity. You will be billed ONLY after the order is completed and received, inspected, and found in good order. PayPal money requests will be sent to those making preorders at that time. When the money request is paid and cleared, you will get a receipt with a tracking number and an estimated delivery date (USPS Domestic tracked priority only, International TBD).
Please no discussion on this thread about the shirts or the design, etc.
If this is successful (i.e. I don't lose the money I have already invested), we may offer additional original memorial shirts of raceways past. We will poll the community at that time for suggestions. If I do lose money the remaining shirts will be sent to the same fourth world country where the shirts for the loser of the 2022 Super Bowl are sent to. The point is this – if you want one or more shirts in your collection, say so now so you may be added to the list.
Special note: One memorial shirt preorder will be selected at random and that person will receive one of their shirts preordered free. It will be autographed on request by Casey Putch who is the founder of Genius Garage and is now training to be in the 2022 Indy 500 field with Legacy Motorsports. Casey may be able to live stream the signing of the shirt on his YouTube channel but this is TBA depending on his schedule at Indy 2022. The deadline for preorders is February 14, 2022, and at that time the PayPal money requests will be started to be sent. The pool of free shirt drawings entries is the number of people who have paid for their preorder in full no later than February 27, 2022, at midnight Central time USA. We will livestream the drawing and announce the winner in much the same manner that Roger Schmitt does for his product giveaways. The winner will have his PayPal money request marked "paid" for one shirt and shipping adjusted as needed for multiple shirts shipping under one order. The autograph can be personalized or omitted at the option of the drawing winner. It will probably be autographed by Casey on 'Pole Day' from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum or a similar historic venue on the speedway grounds TBD. Hopefully the signing can be captured by his crew and appear on his YouTube channel but that is entirely at his option and cannot be assured. The autographed shirt will be shipped separately at my personal expense in early June 2022.
I have tried as best as I could to be comprehensive in this message, Again, please do not clutter this thread with off topic remarks and comments that are not helpful and will ultimately be hidden and or deleted.
All dates, costs, etc mentioned above are based on information that I/we have given in good faith and we believe to be reliable. The world situation being what it is and the proximity of this project to the end of one calendar year and the beginning of a new year may cause un anticipated timeline delays. YOU WILL GET ANY PRODUCT THAT YOU PAY FOR AND IT WILL BE PRICED AS CLOSE TO THE ESTIMATED PRICES ABOVE AS IS HUMANLY POSSIBLE.
Thank you for your kind attention and support. Please note that Slotblog is the official site for preorders of these memorial T-shirts.
PS: Greg has generously allowed me to post this sales information for no fee and I appreciate his generosity. This project is not associated with the Perri family or anyone other than Project X Racing (sponsor) and Genius Garage (beneficiary). The shirt design is based on the Buzz-A-Rama "500" logo, which as far as I know is in the public domain and use here is covered under the 'fair use' provisions of intellectual property law in the USA due to 100% of after tax and other expense proceeds of the sale being donated to a recognized and registered non-profit charity.
