The emotional journey that began in Indianapolis when Mike Ashley won the MAC Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals in a charity fund-raising tribute car ended Saturday in Scottsdale, Ariz. at the Barrett-Jackson Classic Car Auction. As the gavel fell and the auctioneer shouted "Sold!" Phoenix-area construction mogul and car collector Ron Pratte added the nitro Funny Car to his burgeoning collection at a price of $130,000 - all going to the Eric Blake Faulkner Foundation charity to support the Perinatal Loss Program at the St. Vincent Health System Hospital in Little Rock, Ark.
 
Donnie and Hollie Faulkner created the Foundation in memory of their stillborn son, Eric Blake, with the single goal of helping other parents who suffer similar loss. The Faulkners were present at the sale of the car along with officials from the St. Vincent's Hospital as well as Gotham City Racing representatives. Mike Ashley was unable to attend the event because of crucial business and team meetings, but followed the event closely on the Internet, television and with constant calls and text messages.
 

The emotional journey that began in Indianapolis when Mike Ashley won the MAC Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals in a charity fund-raising tribute car ended Saturday in Scottsdale, Ariz. at the Barrett-Jackson Classic Car Auction. As the gavel fell and the auctioneer shouted "Sold!" Phoenix-area construction mogul and car collector Ron Pratte added the nitro Funny Car to his burgeoning collection at a price of $130,000 - all going to the Eric Blake Faulkner Foundation charity to support the Perinatal Loss Program at the St. Vincent Health System Hospital in Little Rock, Ark.
 
Donnie and Hollie Faulkner created the Foundation in memory of their stillborn son, Eric Blake, with the single goal of helping other parents who suffer similar loss. The Faulkners were present at the sale of the car along with officials from the St. Vincent's Hospital as well as Gotham City Racing representatives. Mike Ashley was unable to attend the event because of crucial business and team meetings, but followed the event closely on the Internet, television and with constant calls and text messages.
 
Moments after the sale, Ashley said by telephone, "I think that's awesome!  That's a whole lot of money for a rolling chassis show car - and it will do so much good for so many hurting people. I'm very pleased."
 
The Barrett-Jackson auction is famous for fetching extreme prices for vehicles, and last year raised more than $4 million for charities. According to early local newspaper reports, the prices being paid for vehicles at this year's auction were down from previous years, in some cases more than 50 percent. Nevertheless, fans and team members remained optimistic that the car would bring a sizable contribution, buoyed by several cars in the high-six figures and some surpassing the $1 million mark.
 
Donnie Faulkner said, "We were just praying that it would go for a lot, but it's so hard to guess what something like that would bring, mostly because it's so emotional for us, but for a collector, he is buying it for the charity value as well as the racing-history value.  You just never know.
 
"When they read the introduction and started the bidding, I felt like things were just flying all around. It was hard to focus because everything happens at a frantic pace on that stage. I kept on hoping it would go for the kind of crazy money we had been seeing, but really, to get more than $100,000 is simply awesome," Faulkner said.
 
Faulkner said the bidding started around $25,000 and crawled up to around $40,000 where it stalled until Ashley's Marketing Director, Matthew Brammer, spoke to the crowd about the purpose of the car and its tax-deductible status. Bidding jumped to around $70,000 and was buoyed again when video of Ashley's final round and interview after winning the U.S. Nationals. When the bidding passed $100,000, auction officials unveiled the custom-painted matching MAC Tools toolbox, which pushed the bidding to the final offer of $130,000.
 
St. Vincent Healthcare President and CEO Peter Banko said, "This has been such an amazing process - from Mike winning to the car being on display at our hospital to the auction. This is going to help so many, many people."
 
Banko explained that National Center for Health statistics report that every year in this country more than 39,000 babies are stillborn and almost one out of every 3-4 pregnancies in the U.S. ends in a loss. He said the EBF Funny Car has given a voice to those suffering and "brought caring acknowledgement to the tragic isolation and psycho-social needs of the families dealing with the situation."
 
Ashley said, "It's been such an honor to be a part of this from the very start. That car had such meaning for me, not only because I won the Super Bowl of drag racing, the U.S. Nationals in it, but also because I'm a parent. I've been blessed to have two wonderful children without any problems, but for those who have suffered this kind of loss, to be able to help, it's one of those things that really makes racing worthwhile for me."
 
Besides Ashley, the program involved contributions from countless individuals, including Evan Knoll who donated his sponsorship of Ashley's car at the U.S. Nationals; Jim Jannard, founder of Oakley and Red; Chip Foose, the legendary auto designer who has directed the design and worked with Mark Adkins and the team at Illusions Custom Paint and Body of Bristol, Tenn. to create the one-of-a-kind paint scheme; MOPAR, who donated the 2007 Dodge Charger R/T body specifically for the project; Phoenix Custom Apparel; and MAC Tools who donated a complete rolling toolbox painted to match the original FOOSE design.
 
The purchaser of the car, Chandler, Ariz. resident Ron Pratte, is the largest trade contractor in Arizona and Nevada and is known for his taste for exotic automobiles and willingness to push a bid to win. Last year, he placed the $5 million winning bid for Carroll Shelby's Supersnake Cobra and, this year, in addition to the EBF Funny Car, he paid $675,000 for a 1969 Shelby GT500 convertible that Carroll Shelby owned since it was new, a 2008 Ford Shelby GT500 KR Coupe for $550,000, and a science-fiction dream car, the Blastolene custom roadster, styled after French cars of the 1930s for $475,000.
 
Lynette Spruiell, RTS Coordinator of the Journey Perinatal Bereavement Program at St. Vincent Doctors Hospital in Little Rock, Ark., said, "This is an amazing acknowledgement of these families' grief and I'm just so touched by all the NHRA, Mike, Evan, Jim and the others have done to make this all come true. It's hard to find words to describe what a difference this has and is making."
 
The car was sold as a rolling Funny Car show car, complete with chassis and show-engine. It was also accompanied by a custom MAC Tools rolling toolbox valued at more than $10,000 itself.
 
Ashley added, "This has been a special story from the moment it began, and I really feel this is a fantastic ending to this chapter. I know Donnie and Hollie have said they are trying to have another child, and from what I understand, Hollie is now something like 9-weeks pregnant. To me, that's what helping people is all about -- advancing in life and where you are, growing and learning. I cou;dn't be happier for them, and of course I wish them all the best. This has been awesome, and I'm honored to have been a part of it."