This past Thursday Shay Knight continued his undefeated streak in 2021 by winning his eighth consecutive modified feature at Magnolia Motor Speedway. The victory came in Crate Racin’ USA (CRUSA) competition at the oval located in Knight’s hometown of Columbus, Mississippi.
Knight, a former super late model driver, returned to the modified class last year. He last drove them regularly in 2009.
“I’ve slowed down the last two years,” said Knight, 37, who works at Airbus Helicopters as a composite technician. “My two sons — Braxton, 9, and Jase, 8, — started racing karts. Between work and helping them learn to race, I had to stay closer to home. Modified racing is the answer for me.”
When friend Jeremy Reed-Wood had to fulfill his obligation to the Army National Guard last season, Knight raced Reed-Wood’s modified from Diamond Race Cars, of Brownstown, Indiana. He won in his first night out with it, and proceeded to rack up four more features.
“I had so much fun racing his modified that I had to buy a Diamond chassis for myself,” Knight said.
He debuted the car this year and hasn’t lost a race yet.
“You usually have to work the bugs out of a new car,” said Knight. “This one had no bugs — it was fast right out of the box. It made people question what we are doing to be so fast. The car has been teched from one end to the other. Sometimes you get a good car, and it fits the driver, so things just click.”
Shay Knight hopes to continue his winning ways, but is realistic about his chances.
“Racing is a humbling sport,” Knight said. “You can say you plan to win, but there are a lot of good drivers with good cars that can win any week at any track. We’ve been very fortunate to be so fast.”
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.
