Travis Wolf destroyed his USRA B-mod at Electric City Speedway in Butler, Missouri, on Sunday night. He hit the turn three wall at full speed, but thankfully he walked away from the crash.
“I got in to the turn a little too deep — there were marbles up there at the top of the track,” said Wolf, of Fort Scott, Kansas. “I should not have been up there at that speed. The surface was kind of rough — it was a cowboy-up racetrack.”
Promoters Mike and Jaime Parker took over the track formerly known as Old 71 Speedway midway through last season. They’ve made several improvements to the 1/3-mile oval since taking it over. However, Wolf recognized his role in the wreck.
“When my right rear got into the marbles, it drove my front end into the wall,” Wolf said. “The car rolled six times. I’m thankful for a good car. The roll cage remained intact.”
Wolf raced a Sidebiter Chassis, which he said is destroyed.
“I think I will be able to save the engine and drivetrain,” said Wolf. “The engine was still running after the crash. The tail of the tranny broke off and the driveshaft came out. The quick change rear end was hanging on by the Wehrs J-bar.”
He felt fortunate to escape the wreck without serious injury.
“I’m pretty jarred up,” Wolf said. “My back is stiff, but I was able to walk away from the wreck. It’s awesome that the car held up so well.”
Wolf sat in a Kirkey full-containment seat paired with a RaceQuip five-point harness. He wore a Simpson helmet as well.
“I had no head-and-neck restraint,” said Wolf, “but the wreck scared me enough to have a head-and-neck restraint from here on out.”
The track’s wrecker crew extricated Travis Wolf from the wreck.
“They had to peel away the sheet metal before I could climb out,” Wolf said. “It was a really gnarly wreck.”
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.
