Full Throttle

The Urban Youth Racing School celebrated the holidays with a festive bash Thursday night.

But the founder of the Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization - which introduces inner-city children to career opportunities in motor sports - was feeling anything but joyous when he returned to the office Monday morning.

When Anthony Martin arrived at the school’s modest facility, on a hardscrabble stretch of North Front Street in the shadow of the Ben Franklin Bridge, he noticed that the trailer used to transport the school’s five mini race cars was missing.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Martin said. “We had a 30-foot trailer parked in a lot across the street from the school. We even had a special lock on it that would prevent someone from hitching it to a vehicle. There was some graffiti on it and our kids were excited about cleaning it up and painting it, but somebody stole it. And nobody in the area saw or heard anything.”

Martin, who has seen nearly 1,000 children graduate from the racing school and its “Build A Dream Program” that he founded in 1998, asked that anyone with information about the trailer contact him at 215-923-2532.

NASCAR, Auto Racing, Sports