Thieves stole the trailer used by the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum to haul their items to exhibit at the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) Trade Show in Indianapolis, Indiana. The trailer that was stolen was found the same day it went missing. Thankfully, most of its contents were already unloaded on the show floor.
The theft started at 6:25 a.m. on Friday, December 10. The incident took place in the parking lot of the Microtel on 5815 Rockville Rd in Indianapolis. A hotel camera captured the thieves in action.
“The whole event occurred in two minutes,” said Bob Baker, executive director of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum. “The thieves backed up to the trailer and were gone by 6:27 a.m. Unfortunately, Indiana does not have front license plates, so there was no way to identify the vehicle used to tow the trailer.”
John Sluss, 1998 USAC regional midget champion and current sprint car driver, found the trailer later that day. He operates Indiana’s Finest Towing. His company dispatched Sluss to Covington Square Apartments a mile away from the motel. The manager of the complex reported a trailer dumped in their parking lot.
“The hasp on the trailer’s side door was broken when I arrived,” Sluss said. “I glanced inside and saw fliers from the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum. I called the organization to let them know I found the trailer. It was important to get the trailer back to them at the show and cut through the red tape.”
Baker was reached at the USAC banquet.
“Luckily, our crew was still at the show, just about to leave for the night,” Baker said. “They were able to meet Sluss, who explained to the police that we were all racers, we were the owners, and that could transfer the trailer back to us on the spot.”
The trailer had a lock on its ball and the side door was also locked. There was no alarm on the trailer. The back door remained intact upon its recovery. Thieves entered through the side door. The only items missing were a floor jack and propane heaters.
“Thieves that steal trailers arrive with a tow vehicle that has smaller ball that fits inside the locked ball of the trailer — they don’t have to cut the lock on the ball,” Sluss said. “Criminals follow trailers to hotels. They look for opportunities. They don’t want the trailer — they want what is inside. The thieves towed this one to a parking lot, broke in the side door, took what they wanted, and probably went on to find another trailer. There are several trailers stolen this way whenever there is a trade show in Indianapolis.”
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.
