AMERICANRIDER. COM
MARCH 2026 | 41
Top: Riding by Sedona, Arizona, in 2003. Below left: The riders visit Victory Junction in 2007. Below right: Davis Love III, Herschel Walker, and Kyle Petty visit a children’ s hospital in 2006. Bottom: Greeting fans in Ten Sleep, Wyoming.
seen a house or anything but big farms forever and ever. Then you get to a gas stop, and there’ s 65-70 people standing in line to get Richard Petty’ s autograph or Herschel Walker’ s autograph. How many times are you going to meet a guy who’ s won 30 stock car races and a Heisman Trophy winner in the middle of New Mexico?”
In addition to Kyle Petty, Kyle’ s dad Richard Petty, and Herschel Walker, fans who show up to the events along the 2026 ride will have the opportunity to meet celebrities like Bill Davidson of Harley-Davidson, TV host Rutledge Wood, and race drivers Kenny Wallace, Ken Schrader, and Matt Kenset.
“ We want people to come out,” said Petty.“ We want fans to come.”
After 30 years of organizing and participating in these rides, the KPCRAA team has the logistics figured out. Petty describes the experience as“ like a cruise.” Each morning, participants bring their luggage down from their hotel room to be loaded onto the luggage truck, which departs before the riders so it can arrive early at the next hotel. Then participants eat breakfast before riding out for the day. In swag bags, participants get a T-shirt for each day of the ride, provided by the ride’ s sponsors. Once they reach the hotel, luggage has already been dropped in each participant’ s room. Two doctors and two nurses travel with the group to provide medical aid if necessary, along with a large support team to make sure everything runs smoothly.
To keep the ride manageable, the KPCRAA is capped at about 125-150 motorcycles each year, so applying early is essential to getting a spot. To keep everyone as safe as possible, applicants must send in a video displaying proficiency with slow cone work in a parking lot, and they must take a safety class before the event.
“ Everybody’ s there to raise money to send kids to camp, and it’ s all fun. But in the end, safety never takes a holiday. And safety is our most important thing. It takes priority over everything.”