A phantom oil leak and a flip hampered the efforts of Austin Bishop to make his debut in a 410 sprint car. The flip occurred during hot laps of Opening Day at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.
“I was very comfortable in the car for the three laps I was in it,” Bishop, 21, of Elverson, Pennsylvania, said. “Everything felt good. Suddenly, there was a lot of oil coming out of the engine — it was all over the left-rear [tire]. The smoke was so bad I couldn’t see and I clipped the infield tire. I even had oil on my visor.”
After hitting the infield tire, Bishop proceeded to roll.
Fortunately, he walked away from the crash without injury. He sat in a Kirkey full-containment seat, with a five-point harness from Crow Enterprizes. He wore a Simpson Hybrid head-and-neck restraint paired with a Stilo helmet.
Most of the damage to the car from Triple X Race Co revolved around the front axle and wing. They repaired those items and attempted to make it out for the consolation race. However, the car failed to fire and continued to leak.
“We couldn’t find anything wrong with the engine at the track,” said Bishop’s father, and crew chief, Parke. “We pulled [the engine] this week to see if we could find the source of the oil leak.”
Austin Bishop, the 2019 National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum rookie of the year, moved into 410s after racing 360 and 305 winged sprints. He raced only five events last year due to closures resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. For 2021, Bishop looks to race regularly at a trio of Keystone State tracks — Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown, Port Royal Speedway, and Williams Grove Speedway.
“We’ll chalk up last weekend as a learning experience,” Bishop said. “We’ll regroup and get back out there.”
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.
