TQ midget racer badly injured...

[carolwicks]

He was going into turn one and his throttle stuck at full speed... hit the wall hard..I talked to Geoff Styner and he gave me this information. Geoff went to the hospital and got first hand information.. (thank you Geoff) The drivers name is Fred Stutz and he is 79 YEARS OLD!... he broke his right shin, hips, and pelvis. Thankfully he brain is clear. He was taken into surgery last night and they removed his spleen and he had a laceration on his bladder. Fred has been coherent and remembers everything.... several years ago Fred was badly injured up north and he already has pins in his neck... What a strong man!!!! please keep Fred in your prayers ...
carolwicks aka OZ
any close friends who want to send a card, please email me... carolwicks@comcast.net

[ovalracer44]

Too sad. I had a friend of mine die in a TQ midget up here at Hardeeville in 2000.

I inspected the car for the family after the incident and my ruling on TQ midgets are the are not strong or large enough for the speeds they can attain. I hope people see the light soon on these cars before more people get hurt.

[flvideo]

My heart goes out to Freddy and his family. I was standing about 50 feet from where he hit and the ground shook. I took a few pics. Here is of the car. Its a mess. Oval racer, I have seen hese little cars race for years and have seen them in some preety hairy crashes. For the most part the drivers fared pretty good. They can flip, roll and get tangled up with each other and they are ok. You put one aginst a concrete retaining wall and the don't do real good. Thanks Bob.......

[ovalracer44]

A head on impact with the wall is what killed Howell. After I looked at the car I could not believe that something with the structural integrity of a champ kart would be racing at over 100 mph. I still to this day shake my head when I see them. I don't even go to tracks when they are racing.

[flvideo]

I agree, the bars are 1 1/8 I think. They are pretty small. We had a champ cart hit the wall several weeks ago. He was air-lifted out, but was back at the track a few hours later. Those carts go pretty fast, I'd guess 85 mph or so. Do you think the TQ's could be made safer by a better cage around the driver. But then they wouldn't run so fast they'd be heavier. When I saw the crash, the first thing I thought about was his legs being crushed, but he just had an injuried Shin on his leg. Bob........

[ovalracer44]

I have a theory, and this is just a theory. Same as a legends car, in a tq midget the driver actually sits too close to the impact. I know this may sound crazy but grab a tuning forkup close to the open end. Strike the table and feel it. Now grab it way down at the very base. Strike the table again. Notice the vibrations are not as substantial? I seriously think that the closer you are to the impact point the more impact you will feel. Energy of the impact is dissipated through out the length of the car. Weight also plays a large factor. An impact at 80 mph in a 1300 lb legends and an impact in a 2400 lb ministock at 80 mph is two completely different balls of wax. Wrecking at 60 mph in a legends car feels 3 times as bad as an 85 mph wreck in a ministock. Thats just from personal experience right there. lol

[ovalracer44]

I was also confused in this thread. What you call a TQ midget in florida is not what i think most would consider a tq midget. What I am familiar with is the type powered by motorcycle engines that actually sit beside the driver.

http://www.atqmra.org/7-28-07%20ms%20123,.jpg

Although the Midget in the photo does not look a whole heck of a lot bigger.

Howell Jones was the one that got all the cars from up north to come to hardeeville for a race. It was a 1/3 mile asphalt high banked track. They were getting around it in 13.5 seconds. Just for comparison a super latemodel would turn it in 14.90s. He was developing a 2 stroke engine for the cars that was smaller, lighter, and more reliable than the motorcycle engine. His company here in Beaufort 2si (Two Stroke International) was the head of the development.

[flvideo]

I hear you about the personal experience. I'v never raced one of those small classes of cars myself. I fact its been a bunch of years since I have raced at all. I have been shooting video of racing for about 25 years or so. I'm an old worn out racer. In a TQ there isn't alot of room to move the driver away from a frontal impact. But I agree, the further you are away from the impact the less impact on your body. Its not the impact that gets you, its the sudden stop. LOL! I have never personally hit a wall, so I can't really attest to its effect. The worse I ever did was go off the track into the parking lot, now that was scary. We never had a retaining wall except the front straight and It and I never were formally introduced. The last 2 years I've been taping dirt racing and I have got hooked. If I could find somebody crazy enough to give me a ride in a dirt car I'd jump in it at my age. If you gotta go you might as well be doing something you love. HUH! Bob.........

[sprinter15jr]

First off....I race with Freddie. As a driver of a TQ Midget and my own full size sprint car, they are both a safe car. There are no comparisons to a Champ Kart. These are contsructed just like a sprint car, except smaller in size. The car Freddie was in is a smaller Hurricane Chassis, built by the smae man( Stucky). We checked this car over after the crash and found that the cage DID NOT move or bend. Just like any wreck of this sort, his leg injury came from his legs moving around in the car. The cage and saftey equiptment did is job and did it well. That has a very hard hit. Before you go and try to get people from driving or watching a TQ race, you need to do some homework on these cars. The TQ's that we race are the same TQ's that run all over the country. Some run wings, some don't. These cars are built safe and are contructed to run the speeds we run. By the way, how much extra safety equiptment do you use in your poorly constructed mini-stock? We are safer then most Late Model drivers in those cars.


The main thing everyone should be concerned about is the condition of Freddie Stutz. Again, Thanks to Carol for all that she does. Freddie is a great racer and a great man to be around. I pray that he comes back and races again with us. Please keep Freddie in your thoughts and prayers.

[OLD STYLE RACER 2]

Lil sprinter 15

Before you start insulting the guy for his posts, you should read everything he SAID. If you would have taken the time to read ALL of them, YOU would have seen that he corrected himself 13 hours before your post. Unless you type really,really slow, I think you should appoligize [sic] for insulting him and his race car.





On the other hand, I do hope for the best for the driver.

[ovalracer44]

By the way, how much extra safety equiptment do you use in your poorly constructed mini-stock?

Ha. My cage is a complete 1 3/4 DOM cage built to latemodel Stock specifications. I guarantee my cars to be the safest around.

I feel really bad that a racer got hurt. If you read my posts with an open mind and with some intelligence you will see that its not the size of the cage its the weight to speed ratio that I feel gets people hurt in these type cars. By the way I have read about a lot of TQ midget racers being injured seriously since Howells Death. A lot more than I would call an acceptable percentage with todays knowledge of impacts and safety.

[dnsno]

Jmo

You all can say what you want about old racing tires lineing the outside wall.
If they were stacked on top of each other, as high as the wall and bolted together, it would lesson the severity of the impact.

This opinion comes from a couple of cars getting together, at the same track, when the tires were laying side by side at the bottom of the wall. It did create the ramp effect and launched one of the cars up into the fencing. If those same tires had been stacked five or six high, it would not create a "ramp".

[GameON]

I think the most important thing at this time is to pray for Freddie and his family... I've known them for years and they are all great people be around.

[GameON]

I think what we need to focus on here is praying for Freddie and the entire Stutz family....

[tq6son]

fast freddie's son here

update on fred stutz
after the surgery on saturday night he is still not awake and here it is
may 19th . he went back into surgery today for his broken leg and to put a breathing tub in his neck and feeding tube in his stomach. my whole family
has been trying to wake him up but no dice yet. all vital signs are good . he moves when you touch him and his eyes are tracking. we are just waiting for him to wake up. i go in the room and tell him if he's ready to go racing and hoping he will wake and say lets go.right now im sitting here in the waiting room for him to get out of surgery. i will update more for the people that have asked and are praying for him. i just want to thank everyone thats concerned and praying for him and the stutz family thats you.