Thanks to Lion Ron Staley, we have been able to establish the story behind one of the most popular series of Lions trading pins, the Concord Lions Club World 600 Series. As we understand it, the late Lion Ken Kiser, an avid pin trader and a member of he Concord Lions Club, was responsible for the beginning of this series. The year he was president of the Concord Lions Club (1983-84), he produced the first pin in honor of Dale Earnhart, and called it the “Good Ole Boy” pin. In order to make the pin, Lion Ken had to get written permission from what was then the Charlotte Motor Speedway, and of course, Dale Earnhart. This pin had special meaning to the Concord Lions Club since Earnhart was a native of the area and the Speedway is now actually located in Concord. Although only 150 of the pins were made, Lion Ken presented them to many of the Lions throughout North Carolina and to as many pin traders as he knew at the time.
The following year, Lion Ken presented a proposal to the Concord Lions Club to produce a pin each year honoring the winner of the World 600 race. The Club agreed, which meant that Lion Ken would have to not only get written permission from the winning team each year, he would also have to coordinate his efforts with the Speedway. Although the race has changed names several times and the name of the Speedway has changed names, the big race continues to be held each year on Memorial Day. The winning team receives 15 pins and the remaining 300 are sold to Lions at cost.
A little tidbit about the name of the Raceway. It is now called the Lowes Motor Speedway and is actually located in Cabarrus County, just outside of Charlotte. It was built in 1960, and at the time was 15 miles outside of the Concord city limits. The natives refer to it as the Concord Motor Speedway, or CMS. The story goes that since the sale of beer was not permitted in the County, officials of the Speedway requested the City of Concord, which had no problems with selling beer, to annex it in order that a permit could be obtained.
The Concord Lions Club has produced yearly pins, except for a two year period in 1991 and 1992 when Dale Earnhart was the winner and the Club could not get approval from Dale Earnhart Enterprises. In those two years, the Club opted to issue a pin honoring the “Legends”, which is another race in the NASCAR setup of races in North Carolina.
Arguably, the most popular pin associated with the Concord World 600 series is actually not “officially” a part of the series. It is a personal pin issued by Lion Ken Kiser featuring the likeness of racing great, Richard Petty. The quantity of these pins is unknown and will probably never be known since Kiser passed away in 2007. Although he is gone, the Concord Lions Club is committed to producing the Concord World 600 pin as long as they can obtain permission from the winning teams. Let’s all hope that they will be successful and that we can continue to add these wonderful pins to our individual collections.
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