After a crash in his heat race nearly cost him the night, John Piker (28p) rebounded to win the IMCA sport mod feature. The victory occurred at Ventura Raceway in California.
“I had previously bent the frame in my car, and the tie-rod centers were off,” Piker, 51, of Bakersfield, California, said. “I turned too hard and the right front locked up on the frame, causing me to spin out. The wreck knocked the fuel pump off of my car. Fuel started pouring out.”
Piker quickly proceeded to jump out of his car and kink the fuel line to stop the leak.
“We were fortunate there was no fire,” said Piker. “I had a spare fuel pump, but the fittings were wrong. At least five other racers offered parts to help get us back up and running.”
Despite the wreck, Piker started fifth in the feature, thanks in part to a good pill draw. He charged to the lead on the first lap and never looked back.
“I was determined to win, because I was pretty embarrassed over spinning out in the heat race,” Piker said.
John Piker won in a car quite familiar to him. At the end of last season, he bought back the 10-year-old car built by OnIt Chassis, of Bakersfield, California. Piker had won the 2013 track IMCA sport mod championship at Bakersfield Speedway in California. He had also scored 30-some victories with his tried-and-true race steed.
“My 16-year-old daughter, Ashlynn, told me I was cool when I won the championship,” said Piker. “She said she wanted to go racing with me as a father-daughter activity. So, I bought the car back and we went to The Duel in the Desert at [The Dirt Track] at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last fall. I qualified for the feature. I was cool 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.
