Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Citrus County - And She Walked Away...

Above is the before-the-race photo and below is the after-the-race photo.


And here is the hole in the fence that Wendy made:


So what happened in between to turn our shiny, happy racecar into a wadded up piece of scrap metal? Where to start... It was a hot and humid day at Citrus County Speedway in Inverness on Saturday. With our USCS race in Cordele, GA canceled, the decision was made to run a wingless sprint car show with the Checkered Flag Sprintcar Series ran by former TBARA president Don Rehm.

As to be expected the track was hot and greasy and the car was very loose in the first practice session. For the second practice session, the car was still loose, but not as bad. For the heat race, we made some changes to the car to try and tighten it up and also made a gear change because we weren't pulling enough revs down the straight. Wendy started sixth in the heat race and finished fourth.


"Right now, it's tough out there," said Wendy after the heat race. "We picked up two spots, so that was good, but some of the changes we made just didn't have an effect on the loose condition. We need to go back to the original gear because the track temperature is starting to drop and I need to get out of the turns a little quicker."


For the feature race we changed springs on the rear, lowered the ride height, put some extra fuel in to settle the rear on turn entry and also moved the brake bias forward to help settle the front of the car. Wendy lined up eighth for the feature and was settling in to her race pace, with the car handling much better, particularly on turn entry and through the middle of the turn.


Then on lap 11, there was a caution. When the race restarted, Darrin Miller in the #21 swerved to avoid the start cone and when this happened, the #75 of Curtis Sutton (who was already lapped, inside of ten laps...) turned right and as a result moved up into Wendy, who was going around the outside of Sutton, and sent her airborne, into the fence on the front stretch and almost over the guardrail in Turn One.


It was not pretty.


Some say four flips, some say seven. The steering wheel flew out, one of our shocks cleared the fence, some fans got an entirely too close view of our car, part of the frame in front of Wendy's head was bent, the fence got a giant hole in it, a wood post got split, BUT WENDY WALKED AWAY!
We'd just like to point out that Citrus County has great staff, the CFSS has great officials and the safety crew that came to Wendy's aid were all fabulous - thank you so much!

"I suppose the less said the better about the driver that hit me, and trust me, I'm angry, but right now I'm just happy to be standing here," said Wendy after the crash. "I know I counted four flips and I just wanted it to stop. After the steering wheel flew out, my arms were flying everywhere trying to hit the kill switch to make it all stop, but the centrifugal force kept pulling my arms back in. But, I simply can't say enough about Butler seats and my Bell helmet. Look at my poor race car, it's a mess. I'm sore and a little bruised, but that Butler seat saved me tonight. And for those short track racers out there without a Hans device, think twice. I don't want to think about what would have happened to me tonight without all of my safety equipment."

A few more pictures of our poor car:

After the racing was done for the night, we took a walk back out on to the track to check out where Wendy hit the wall, and we decided to take a few pictures.

There used to be a nice wood post here:
Here is where Wendy's car finally stopped:

And we only thought it fair to autograph where she put so much paint and rubber on the wall:

We can be thankful that Wendy is okay and we can smile about it now, but safety in a racecar is no laughing matter. It's because of Bell Helmets, Butler Seats, the Hans Device and the integrity of the Hurricane Chassis that Wendy walked away.

So what's next? We're not sure to be frank. The car suffered major damage. We have a very generous offer to help fix the frame but we also have a lot of broken components to replace. We were just barely getting buy so far this season, and doing very well on a very tight budget, so this is a major setback for us.

If you'd like to help us somehow, please e-mail us at wendymathispr@gmail.com.

Thank you to everyone that stopped by after the race to check on Wendy. We always said Wendy has the best fans in the state of Florida and you guys proved it Saturday night.

We'll be back to fight another day, I assure you.