The feature for Ron Haring Jr. ended on the first lap, in the first turn. The modifieds attempted to go three-wide for the lead as they entered turn one at Grandview Speedway in Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, that rarely works, as Haring found out, with his car hitting the wall hard.
“It was a racing accident, I guess,” Haring, 31, of Alburtis, Pennsylvania, said. “The impact broke the rear end and front axle, and destroyed the right side of the chassis.”
At the end of the night Haring (left) lamented to fellow driver Jimmy Leiby (right) that the only luck he’s had this year was bad luck.
He flipped the brand-new Hig Fab Chassis car earlier in the season at Big Diamond Speedway in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. The car survived that incident. The wreck at Grandview, however, put the nail in the coffin for the chassis.
“Thank God I had an open trailer — I kept it for this reason [of having a badly wrecked car at the races],” said Haring. “I only live 10 miles from the track. I went home, got the trailer, and the wrecker guys put the car on it for me.”
While Haring’s car won’t live to race another day, Haring will. His only injury from the incident resulted from him biting his tongue, which swelled the next day.
Haring sat in a Kirkey full-containment seat, with a Crow Enterprizes five-point harness and a Pyrotect helmet. He did not wear a head-and-neck restraint, but did have a neck collar on.
Ron Haring Jr. spent most of this week stripping the salvageable parts off the wrecked car. Luckily, he kept his old Teo chassis, which he transferred the salvaged components to.
“Unfortunately, I will have to miss racing this weekend,” Haring said. “There are just too many things for one guy to do. I’ll be back in a week or two.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
