This devastating sprint car wreck left Will Hull sore, but otherwise uninjured. It started when his car went into the frontstretch wall of Bear Ridge Speedway in Bradford, Vermont. That set off a chain of events during the Sprint Cars of New England feature.
“First my car flipped over, and landed on all four tires,” Hull, of East Montpelier, Vermont, said. “I went into the wall with the throttle wide-open. When the car came off the wall, the throttle was stuck. The impact bent the cross linkage of the injection system so that the linkage could not return [to closed position].”
With his car’s engine revving, Hull shot across the track into the infield.
“I hit the pylon protecting one of the infield lights,” said Hull. “It was made of galvanized, corrugated culvert material with sand backing it. If it were concrete, things would have been a lot worse. It absorbed the impact.”
Hull’s car then turned on its side.
“I released my belts as soon as I could and crawled out the side of the car,” Hull said. “I was able to get out in seconds.”
Hull sat in a Kirkey SFI-certified full-containment seat paired with an Impact Racing five-point harness. He wore a Zamp helmet and a HANS device.
The second impact with the inside wall destroyed the car and battered Hull.
“Hitting the pylon was vicious and nasty,” said Hull. “I’ve flipped and bicycled my sprint car like every other sprint car driver has done, but I never had a wreck like this.”
Hull bought the car new from Maxim Racing Inc. When the company’s Dan Musselman saw a photo of the wreckage on social media, he contacted Hull.
“I told Dan that the capsule around me was 100% intact,” Hull said. “The chassis did its job, as did all the safety gear I bought. I may be banged up, but I have no broken bones and I’m upright today.”
Hull returned to work at his engine-building business, Hull Motorsports, on Wednesday. He rested three days prior.
“I’m still quite sore around my tailbone and left hip,” said Hull. “But, I want to race this weekend.”
Will Hull planed to compete with the USAC Dirt Midget Association (DMA) at Bear Ridge Speedway on Saturday.
“As long as I can get in the midget and tighten my belts, I’m racing,” Hull said.
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.
