BY SCOTT JENKINS
SALISBURY POST

KANNAPOLIS — A committee planning a memorial to the late Dale Earnhardt has selected NASCAR artist Sam Bass to design a wall and narrowed a list of potential sculptors for a statue to three.

The Dale Earnhardt Tribute Committee will invite the sculptors to come to Kannapolis July 24 and present their concepts for the statue, part of a planned plaza in Village Park dedicated to the memory of Earnhardt.

Committee members selected the three proposals out of 25 received from across the U.S., France, Italy and Israel. The three finalists hail from Illinois, Arizona and Boone.

Omri and Julie Rotblatt-Amrany are a couple from Highland Park, Ill., whose most notable work includes a bronze statue of basketball legend Michael Jordan and a sculpture of the Detroit Tigers’ hall of fame players.

Sedona, Ariz., sculptor Clyde Ross Morgan is a Vietnam veteran whose award-winning work includes a larger-than-life railroad worker in Flagstaff, Ariz., and the Utah Vietnam veterans memorial.

Richard Hallier of Boone has sculpted athletes in bronze for an Olympic Headquarters entrance piece and for the University of North Carolina. His work is displayed in corporate and private collections, as well as museums.

Finalists chosen had “the most descriptive sculptures and expressive statues of any,” said Cathy Watkins, Earnhardt’s sister and a committee member.

City officials and private citizens began discussing a memorial in the weeks after Earnhardt, a Kannapolis native, died in a February crash during the first stock car race of the season in Daytona, Fla.

The plaza will be near a tree line in Village Park off Loop Road and will include the statue and a wall bearing tribute to Earnhardt’s life and career in racing.

Committee members said there was no need to search far and wide for an artist to design the wall. Sam Bass, a close friend of Earnhardt and the almost official artist of NASCAR, has his studio in Concord.

“Without a doubt ... he is the artist we would like to see do the commemorative wall,” said Jimmie Melton, chairwoman of the artist selection subcommittee.

Watkins added: “Honestly, I don’t think there’s anyone else qualified to do the wall.”

Bass has some ideas about what he’d like to see on the wall, the committee members said. All such details must be approved by Earnhardt’s widow, Teresa Earnhardt.

Members of the committee said they probably won’t begin a major campaign to raise money for the monument until the NASCAR race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in October. They now peg the cost at $10,000, up from an initial estimate of $7,000.

Some unofficial fund-raising has begun, with fans from around the country sending in $706 in unsolicited donations. Once the campaign starts, committee members say it won’t be hard to come up with the rest of the money.

“I think once it starts, it’s going to be unstoppable,” said Kannapolis Mayor Ray Moss, who chairs the committee.

Committee members suggested ideas for raising money, such as giving gifts for specific amounts donated. The gifts might include a buckeye, which Earnhardt carried for good luck, and miniature versions of the statue, or a donor’s name on the wall.

The committee also might enlist the help of NASCAR drivers and sponsors, local and national radio personalities, and neighboring governing bodies in fund-raising.

Contact Scott Jenkins at 704-797-4248 or sjenkins@salisburypost.com .