Posted by UMARA on 6/6/2005, 1:00 pm
Board Administrator

By: Tom Arthur No doubt about Saturday nights racing at Grundy County Speedway, no matter who your favorite driver is or which division you follow, there is only one topic of discussion after all is said and done...THE crash. On lap 14 of the A main for the D’Arcy GMC Professional Grade National Midgets, Jonathon Windstrup was running a solid race, in 8th place, when he apparently suffered a stuck throttle on his Brayton Buick powerplant, hurling his car into the 1st turn wall with such force that the car disintegrated on impact, absorbing the energy, but separating at the firewall. As the red flag flew and the safety crews approached the grim scene...a smoking motor at least a hundred feet farther down the track, debris everywhere, and the mangled cage with Jonathon’s legs exposed coming to rest between turns one and two, the crowd stood and hoped for the best, but feared the worst. A collective sigh of relief could be heard when the call came...he’s awake, alert, and talking to the safety crew. More than one silver haired observer made the same comment: “that’s the worst one I’ve ever seen”. Or “that it looked like an Indy car crash”. A driver who witnessed the crash noted that if Windstrup had not been wearing a HANS device and been using a top of the line Butler seat, the outcome could have easily been different. Several people on the pit side of the catch fence suffered minor cuts and bruises from flying debris. Only Winstrup was transported to the Morris Hospital for observation. David Gough went on to win the event, taking the lead on lap 11, followed by Jim Anderson, Sean Murphy, David Ward and David Thompson. Gough had won his earlier heat race by 1/2 a lap over Sean Murphy and Scott Shilkuski, driving the #99 usually driven by Bobby Guess. David Ward won heat two, with Mike Heiss 2nd, David Bryne 3rd. Steve Thinnes won heat 3 by 1/2 a straight, with Nick Fox finishing ahead of 3rd place Danny Drinan. In contrast, the D’Arcy GMC Professional Grade Sportsman A main ran green from start to finish. The front row was a study in contrast, Adam Laurie of Elburn had earned the pole in Freedie Teer’s #54. The rookie driver had completed the mandatory minimum 3 race probation put on all new drivers, forcing them to start at the rear of all their races. Sitting outside the front row was one of the founders of this division, Rich Peceniak, the man who has started more Sportsman events than any other driver. Anyone who questioned if Laurie was ready to start up front quickly had their fears put to rest. He confidently took the green and held his line through one and two, down the back straight, through three and four and back to the stripe. And repeated the process 24 more times to lead every lap on the way to his first career midget win. Doug Orseske finished 2nd in Joe Knippel’s spare car, with Knippel closing in 3rd, but running out of laps after taking his time working traffic to avoid another episode like last week, which took him out early. Klaus Wever finished 4th and Danny Drogemuller 5th. David Gough won the heat and feature of the 360 sprints, folllowed by Freedie Teer and Tom Schnabel both times. Ottawa’s Butch Hampson picked up his 1st heat win in the BIDCA Classic Modifieds, with Tom Schabel 2nd, Roger Osborne 3rd and Peru driver Joe Mox 4th. John Meyers won the other heat followed by Mike Petrizzo and Dan Pote. Al Claps drove the Pote car to the win in the main event , tracking down Hampson on the last lap. Hampson had led most of the race, but spun in some water in turn four, but came back to finish 6th. Roger Osborne was 2nd, Vicki Schnabel 3rd, John Meyers 4th and Joe Mox 5th. All four divisions return to Grundy next Saturday night for the Bob Meyers Memorial Race

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