Late model crashes

[jacko241]

Being at the Red Eye got me to thinking about the past. I have been going to New Smyrna Speedway as a spectator since 1980, and after seeing the violent crash of Ben Kennedy and David Rogers, it got me to thinking that I don't remember seeing the number of severe crashes back in the 80's and 90's that I see now. I am sure there are a lot of you guys out there that have seen many more races than me, so I may be mistaken. I would be interested to hear other opinions.

[fred23]

I would have to say that one of the reasons is that there used to be adults or veterans driving late models or Super latemodels that had to foot the bill and work on their own stuff when it got wrecked. Plus that was pre Days of Thunder and video game days........"drive through it" and "reset" were not racing terms then......

I do remember Granny (can't remember her name) having a pretty ferocious wreck on the back stretch at NSS back then......that old bird got out of the car and walked back to the pits........

There were some big wrecks back then, maybe not as many plus the cars were a bit slower and more sturdy being more steel and full framed cars......

[jacko241]

I think you are right, Fred. That is kinda how I see it. I remember going week after week and seeing Leroy Porter and Joe Middleton go at, and race hard, but almost never crash, at least not when I was there.

[ancrdave]

If I had a dollar for every Late Model that's been destroyed at New Smyrna since the track opened in 1967, I'd be a very rich man!

[RSB]

Granny Tatroe(?)

Pitted next to her quite a few times in the late 80's/early 90's. Always had the little dog in the back of the old suburban and a old fellow that worked on the car.

[Jeff1888]

Hard to tell but this is Kenny going over the wall,landed in the woods behind the bleachers.Jimmy Cope went over the wall in the same place another night.Crashes have always been vicious and guys didn't always walk away like they do now.Cars are a lot safer now.A lot of the bad crashes back then came from stuck throttles going into the corner.I believe that's what happened to Kenny and Jimmy.

Just thought I'd throw this in...that's me in the 24 getting t boned in the
same corner Kenny went over the wall on the same night.

[backrow]

I can remember some wicked ones at Volusia on the asphalt. Rob Underwood and Leroy Porter were in a doozy on the frontstretch and the Burkhalters were a rolling late model Crashorama.

[bubba]

Two that come to mind are Butch Millers sliced in half crash going into three at nss when he hit the end of the wall. I couldn't figure out what was taking so long to cleanup then I saw the forklift with the front of the car on it. They had a pic in the bar at the track.

The other one was somebody running over Rogers left rear on the front stretch and cartwheeling down the front stretch, end over end longways. I thought he and the flag man were done for.

[eracer52]

i beleive it was musgrave going end over end.

[Woody]

musgrave

I belive Howie and company used our shop to fix that mess

[oneoff]

Woody did you see Butch's car after it borke up? The whole right side including the frame rail was .049 tubing !

[Jimmy McKinley]

I wasn't there that night, but I remember seeing pictures of Richard Coffin's crash at New Smyrna in '83.

I also remember Cope going through the plywood at St. Pete. He cleared some 30' trees if I recall.

We had something happen to our car one night at Sunshine as well. Actually, two pretty severe crashes. One was in about '82. Car went through the plywood and buried just about firewall-deep into the dirt mound in turn three. Pulled the nosepiece and right front corner body work off of it while they were cleaning up, went to the rear, came back, and ran second that night - with a 28+ car field and only 25 laps to get it done. Actually, only about 22 laps, as the wreck happened on like lap 3.

Then, Bryan (Wescott) had a bad wreck in our car. He had come off of turn four three-wide, in the middle. Bounced off of (I believe) Dave Dunkin's car on the inside, got turned sideways, and slid driver's side first into the pit opening in turn one. Car was just about bent in half, Bryan went to the hospital. Got some pictures of the car on my Facebook.

Anyone got pics from the Red Eye? I sure am missing the racing up here in Ohio. Not used to race tracks being closed in January, what with the snow and all....LOLOLOL...

[jnyg23]

dont know who it was but a blue and silver #14 hit the gate where you get into the the track and was just ripped in half at the gov cup in the late 80s early 90s

[bubba]

That was Rick Crawford during speedweeks, I recall seeing that one.

[flvideo]

Take a look at this one. The only people hurt were in the stands hit by concrete. I don't think anyone was hurt seriously. Bob...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37w9DN7-3Xo