A Friday-night crash at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri, damaged the floorpan of the late model driven by Mike Marlar. It also injured Marlar, who was competing in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series portion of the Lucas Oil Show-Me 100.
What Happened
Marlar’s car bicycled from catching a rut. He landed where his seat was first at the top of the turn.
“When I started to bicycle, I knew I had room to turn right and try to set the car down — the wall is 20 feet off of the track,” Marlar, of Winfield, Tennessee, said. “The car came down seat-first on the crown of the track. The mud drove the floorpan up. The clutch pedal went through the floorboard while banging up my feet and ankles.”
The impact jarred Mike Marlar.
“The crash knocked the wind out of me,” said Marlar. “When the track crew helped me out of the car, I doubled over on the track safety crew’s ATV until I caught my breath.”
Then, Marlar realized the seriousness of the crash.
“My arms hurt from coming down hard and hitting the edges of the seat,” Marlar said. “They looked like they were hit with a baseball bat — they both had big knots. Both of my ankles were bruised up. My feet were jammed upward when the floorpan collapsed from the impact.”
On Tuesday, Marlar returned from visiting a third doctor since the crash. X-rays confirmed that Marlar suffered fractures of his T10 and T11 vertebrae.
“The doctors said while my injuries are painful, it was still reasonably safe to continue to race,” said Marlar. “That’s all I wanted to hear.”
Seat Padding in Focus
In hindsight, Marlar felt he could have prepared his ButlerBuilt full-containment seat differently to prevent injury.
“As dirt racers, we want minimal padding in our seats, if any at all, so we could so we could feel the suspension work,” said Marlar. “I had thin padding in my seat, which allowed my tailbone to keep traveling into the seat on impact.’
Fred Bickford, of ButlerBuilt Racing Seats, seconded the need for appropriate padding in the seat.
“The padding contoured to the bottom and back of the seat is for comfort,” Bickford said. “NASCAR is now requiring SFI 45.2, a denser padding, that is placed under the butt. The brunt of an impact like this [without denser padding] offers no chance for deceleration of the driver’s body. [The driver’s body] just crunches from the forces.”
Track Prep
In a Facebook post after the race, Marlar called out Lucas Oil Speedway:
“Maybe Lucas Oil Speedway uses better judgment today, don’t want to see any of my buddies get hurt.”
While Lucas Oil Speedway cancelled Thursday due to rain, Marlar said they still farmed the track on Friday.
“They tore the racetrack apart — they were watering it,” said Marlar. “A bunch of us drivers wondered what they were doing. They made the track really rough come race time.”
Marlar said that live coverage of dirt late model racing has changed the sport.
“We’re getting more and more time on TV, and it’s paying us better,” Marlar said. “The tracks are getting muddier than ever — instead of being slick — to make the racing better for the viewer.”
Aftermath
After Lucas Oil Speedway, Mike Marlar ventured to 411 Motor Speedway in Seymour, Tennessee. They hosted the Valvoline Iron-Man Late Model Southern Series’ Scott Sexton Memorial on Monday.
“I decided to race at 411 Motor Speedway because it is a skating rink — Mitch has one of the smoothest, slickest dirt tracks in the country,” Marlar said. “After I raced, I actually felt better when I got out of the car. I think getting all those Gs on my body helped it.”
Now, Marlar prepares the Eldora Million at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, on June 8–9.
“If anything comes out of this crash, I hope it is an awareness of how important it is to have proper seat padding,” said Marlar. “All racers should realize this type of crash can happen, and a devastating injury can be prevented.”
The Outside Groove Director of Photography 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.
