This is the tale of how Aaron Jarnigan won a lowrider Lincoln. Let me paint the picture. If you don’t know Aaron Jarnigan already, just imagine him looking like Farmer Jon. White boy, flannel shirt, sun hat, Tennessee native, and car culture aficionado.
- Aaron decided to go to a badass lowrider show in ATL, put on by Krazy Vatos Atlanta.
- He bought 2 tickets to the show at $20 per ticket… totaling 40 bucks.
- Each ticket included 1 raffle entry to win a lowrider they were giving away right there at the show… that’s 2 entries.
- Can you see where this is going?? Here it is in Aaron’s own words…
This weekend has been the craziest weekend of my life!
My good-homie David (@dg423) sent me the flyer for the Atlanta Lowrider Super Show hosted by Krazy Vatos Atlanta. I have to admit, we stayed up late Friday night watching Things Heard and Seen… so we kinda slept in. I texted David that morning & asked if he was still gonna go, and he told me he was almost there! So me & Nicole packed our road-trip gear as quickly as possible, and finally got to the show about three hours late. We paid the fee for admission: 2 tickets at $20 each, for a total of 40 bucks. And as part of the ticket price, we automatically got two raffle tickets to win a lowrider Lincoln Town Car they were giving away at the end of the show. Ok cool whatever.
I crammed the ticket stubs in my pocket…
And we did what anyone at a show does. We walked around, looked at cars, talked to people, and shared a few cold drinks under a tent.
We ended up at the show all day…
So when they made the announcement that the grand finale car-giveaway was about to happen, we figured we’d stick around to watch.
Just prior to the raffle beginning…
I leaned over & asked David “Yo, have you ever won anything?” And he said, “Naaah”.
Like anyone else, I looked over the raffle car and thought, “Man… I’d like to haaaaa dat!”. The day was everything a normal car show would be.
Once the time came for the raffle, we moved closer to the stage. I remember saying, “The chance of me winning this car is slim… but it’s not zero.”
Nicole has this family-luck thing…
Where her dad would rub lottery tickets on her head for good luck. Now I don’t necessarily believe in the luck-generating powers like she does, but I rubbed the ticket on her head as she insisted. I held the ticket up in front of my face, kind of focusing on it with the stage out of focus behind it. They were calling multiple tickets up to the stage.
And about the 7th ticket call, I heard my number!!
I moved as fast as a fatman could… to the stage where the smell of flowers almost knocked me over. Fun Fact: I couldn’t get to the steps due to the number of people around the stage. Someone gave me a hand and I almost fell on my ass. Anyway, I think they officially called 10 tickets… but only 7 people were on stage.
Then – they explained that it was going to be an elimination-based win.
Our tickets were put into a cup, and if your number was called, you had to leave the stage.
As I’m standing there on stage, I’m thinking, “FOR SURE, I’m NOT winning this car.”
“Me… the WHITE BOY here on stage dressed like a city-farmer is not actually taking this home… no way.” As they called the tickets, my mind began racing. “Could this happen??”
I was pretty calm until I realized it was just me & the cat with a baby strapped to his chest.
At this point, my heart began pounding like I’ve never felt it before. The big man with the microphone reaches into the bag and calls the last ticket number and I had a Hank Hill, “Now WAIT A DAMN MINUTE!” moment. I WON THE CAR!!!
This is crazy! My life is crazy! This car is crazy!
From the time I was a kid, I’ve idolized low-riders because my brother had a box Chevy, a Delta 88, and an Impala. And his buddy had either an Impala or a Malibu on juice… it was white. Anyway, I have three old Lowrider Magazines downstairs that I periodically go through when I’m feeling inspired – from ’92, ’96 and ’99.
I can only imagine a lot of people were shocked I won this car…
But the amount of fist-bumps and congratulations I got was overwhelming! We drove the lowrider Lincoln all the way home from Atlanta, as I felt that was the only way to do it, and now all I can say is… let’s fucking cruise!
Photos by Ben Battles
