Austin Burkham saw red after another car made contact with his during a Texas Sprint Series (TSS) heat race at Monarch Motor Speedway in Wichita Falls, Texas. The hit sent Burkham’s car flipping. Burkham then stormed to the infield in search of the driver who sent him on his wild ride. Track official Scottie Kelton restrained Burkham and calmed him down.
“[Burkham] took off running from his car,” said Kelton, of Duncanville, Texas. “I tried to save him from getting kicked out of the TSS. Luckily, once I grabbed him he realized it wasn’t a good idea to pick a fight.”
Burkham is thankful for Kelton’s efforts.
“It was best that he held me back,” Burkham said. “Things would have been worse in several ways if I got into a fight. After I got off the track, I calmed down.”
The car Burkham raced, a J&J Auto Racing chassis, won’t race again.
“My car is junk,” said Burkham. “The right down tube was bent as was the frame rail. I felt it could not be safely repaired. I’m done for the season. I’ll have to buy a new car for next season.”
Burkham sat in a Kirkey full-containment seat, with a Simpson five-point harness. He wore a Simpson helmet paired with a HANS device. Although Burkham felt well when he left the track, his condition changed after returning home. He started to experience a headache and become dizzy.
“[On] Sunday morning, I was holding onto my bed — everything was spinning,” Burkham said.
Austin Burkham paid a visit to the hospital. Doctors diagnosed him with a concussion. The injury forced him to take two days off from work at a logistics warehouse. He returned after that, but under doctors’ orders not to lift heavy items.
“The doctor told me the symptoms should go away in a couple of weeks,” said Burkham. “If they don’t go away, I’ll have to see him again. The important thing is that I have to rest to be ready for next season.”
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.
