Adam Pierson traveled from East Corinth, Vermont, to Kutztown, Pennsylvania, to race the USAC Nos Energy Drink National Midget Series event on August 5 at Action Track USA. Unfortunately, a wreck that launched him (pictured in background) toward the fourth turn wall not only ended his night, but his midget season.
“Tyler Courtney [pictured in the foreground] performed a slide job on me when I was running the middle to top of the racetrack in fourth position [during the heat race],” Pierson said. “The slide job took place at the exit of turn four, past the apex, as opposed to going into the apex, which is more common. I didn’t expect it.”
A wheel hop between the two cars sent Pierson’s midget for a ride.
“My car went straight up and landed head-on into the wall,” Pierson said. “It bounced sideways and then flipped along the fence twice before landing on its side.”
Pierson exited the car without injury. He sat in a full-containment seat from The Joie of Seating and used a Simpson Hybrid head-and-neck restraint system and Simpson five-point harness. Pierson raced a car built by Spike Chassis and owned by J.R. Mancini, of Plainville, Connecticut. The accident destroyed the car.
“JR put a lot of work and money into the car,” said Pierson. “It was sad that this crash twisted and bent everything on the car badly. It could not be saved. Thank God for a well-built race car with the best safety equipment.”
Adam Pierson has three series championships steering dirt midgets — 2014 Lucas Oil POWRi Outlaw Midget Series and 2015–16 USAC Dirt Midget Association (DMA). Pierson also races sportsman modifieds near his Vermont home. He finished second in points with the modified at Devil’s Bowl Speedway in West Haven, Vermont, in 2020.
Pierson intends to continue racing the sportsman modified in 2021. However, he has no plans lined up to race midgets again.
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.
