The number three kept appearing for Slingshot driver David Carraghan. He won three straight features and three different tracks. But, wait, there’s more. Carraghan’s luck came after three blown engines ruined the first three weeks of his season.
Those failures included a cracked block, a head gasket leak, and a bent crankshaft. The Slingshots use a 250cc, two-cylinder, Briggs and Stratton racing engine.
However, Carraghan put that behind him as he won at the following Pennsylvania tracks:
- July 6 at Shellhammer Dirt Track in Shoemakersville.
- July 8 at Linda’s Speeedway in Jonestown.
- July 13 at Action Track USA in Kutztown.
“It was one heck of a week,” Carraghan, 53, of Emmaus, Pennsylvania, said. “There’s an ebb and flow in racing. After the third motor, I turned it around.”
The Slingshots attract racers of all ages.
“You have drivers that are just starting out — like teenagers moving up from .25 midgets, who will continue to move on,” said Carraghan. “Then, there are those racers still hanging around, just having fun racing. Finally, there are the older guys like me.”
Carraghan bought his car six years ago, and has more than 20 feature wins in it.
“I’m at a different stage in life,” said Carraghan. “I have a son in college and a mortgage to pay. I’m competitive, had always been involved in sports, and this division offers me an affordable place to race and be competitive at a point in life that my body won’t let me play the other sports.”
David Carraghan will look to extend his streak on Wednesday, July 27, at Action Track USA. He’ll follow that up with a race at Linda’s Speedway and then five nights at five tracks for Pennsylvania Speedweek.
“I’m gearing up for Speedweek,” Carraghan said. “I have to be good. It doesn’t ever get more competitive than it does that week.”
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.
