It’s been 10 years since Robbie Stillwaggon celebrated in victory lane with his mother, Melanie. While he’s no stranger to victory lane, his mother rarely comes to the races. However, this past Saturday’s United Racing Club (URC) event at Grandview Speedway in Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania, she witnessed her son emerge victorious.
“As she hugged me, she said she picked a good race to come to,” Stillwaggon, of Burlington, New Jersey, said. “I said, ‘I told you I would win for you.’”
If you had seen how Stillwaggon fared last year at Grandview Speedway, you might question that statement. As he went for the lead, he lost a wheel, flipping his sprint car in turns three and four. Nevertheless, Stillwaggon’s confidence remained.
“I knew that would most likely not happen again this year,” said Stillwaggon said of the accident. “I wanted Mom there to see me win.”
(For more on the flip, read “Robbie Stillwaggon: Tagged the Wall and Flipped.”)
So, he urged his mother to come to Grandview Speedway this past Saturday.
“I kind of begged her to come, and she finally gave in,” Stillwaggon said. “Mom came to the races with us from when I was five until I was 25. She hadn’t been to the races for so long because she’s taking care of the grandkids — I have two children and my brother has one. No other races this season would be this close to home. Grandview Speedway is an hour and a half away.”
Robbie Stillwaggon made her mother’s rare track visit worthwhile with a win. In the URC point standings, he sits in fourth place. Earlier this year he won at Woodhull Raceway in New York, racing with the Empire Super Sprints.
While Stillwaggon often hits the road to race, he remains close to his parents. When he’s not racing, he works in his family’s body shop.
“They pay most of the bills,” said Stillwaggon of his parents. “So, it was nice for her to see where her money is being spent.”
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.
