Knoxvllle, Is --Tionda Bradley andher little sister, Diamond,were abducted July 6. Brian Paulus wants to find them.

So does Jac Haudenschild. So does Blake Feese.

So do plenty of other people at~ Knoxville Raceway.

The faces of the Bradley sisters are on the nose wings of three sprint cars competing in the Amoco Ultimate Knoxville Nationals this weekend Alongside their photos are toll-free numbers: to report information

"It's a good idea; I'm glad somebody came up with it," said Feese, who drives a car bearing the likenesses of the girls. "I hope more people get to do it and something good comes from it. Having lost kids is terrible. Every little kid gets lost once in a while, but this is different."

It's also an unusual use of sponsorship space. The 2-foot-by-3-foot section of a nose wing is usually sold to a sponsor who pays hundreds - sometimes thousands - of dollars to get a product or company.

In this case, though, the Bradley sisters and their case appears for free.

"Nobody's making money at this," said Brett Lichty, who helped bring the idea to sprint-car racing.

The Bradley case
MISSING: Tionda Bradley, 10, and Diamond Bradley, 3
ABDUCTED: July 6 in their hometown of Chicago, Ill.
PHOHE NUMBERS: 1-800-CRIMETV. 1-800-325-HOPE
WEBSITE: www.missingkids.com

"I can guarantee you that some body's losing money on it because they could be selling that space on their cars"

Using motorsports to find missing children has worked too. After the face of Tori Lynn Wollangur was shown on the hood of an SOCA Trams Am car driven by Don Sak at the Detroit Grand Prix in June, the 7-year-old girl was found in Mexico and returned to her home in Traverse City, Mich.

"I've been amazed at how many people walk by the car and do a double-take," said Paulus, whose car also carries the information. "They start to focus on it and then start to read it. They look the girls' faces. It grabs they eye as much as the car itself."

By donating the prominent space and making people aware of it, two teams and three drivers are trying to accomplish more than going faster than the rest.

"These little girls have done nothing wrong in life," Paulus said. "If we can do something to give them recognition, to have people looking for them and finding them and bringing them home safely, it will be worth it. If this hadn't come up, we probably would have sold the space, but this is invaluable."

The motorsports plan is a joint effort of the Jacob Wetterling Foundation and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Jacob Wetterling was 11 years old when he was abducted at gunpoint in St. Joseph, Minn.

"The whole concept has been an initiative I've taken onto bring an interest in child safety," said Lichty, a Mason City native who attended high school with Jacob's father, Jerry. "The mission is education and awareness for child safety. The racing initiative came out of a brainchild to get interest in programs that help kids, like DARE."

Lichty pitched the idea at Gary and Dawne Pender, who liked the idea so much they donated spice on the nose wings of their cars the No.28 driven by Paulus and the No. 28f driven by Feese.

Haudenschild's car, owned by Wise Motorsports, also displays the Bradley sisters on its nose wing. Mark Kinser had a Jacob Wetterling Foundation decal on his car during his Nationals win last year, and Paul McMahan, Stevie Smith, Danny Lasoski and Craig Dollansky also have carried the Wetterling decals on their cars.

"TV is what it's on there for," Feese said. "Hopefully the TV guys will come down, and somebody sitting at home will see it. Hopefully, it will help. It only takes one person."

And three nose wings.