Tim Vance, a 62-year-old rookie in the econo 4 class, has experienced the highs and lows of the sport. He won earlier in the year at Lake View Motor Speedway in Nichols, South Carolina. Then Vance took this wild ride last Saturday at Sumter Speedway in South Carolina.
Vance looked to make some ground up after getting shuffled to the back due to another incident.
“I just got into fifth place when I made an attempt to pass the fourth-place car,” Vance, of Sumter, South Carolina, said. “I planned to go high on the track, but I went a little too high.”
Too high equated to Vance’s right-rear wheel dropping off the steeply banked track, causing his car to ride the berm and flip over the edge.
“I was just bruised a bit,” said Vance. “I had no injuries, and I am happy for that.”
Vance sat in a ButlerBuilt full-containment seat, with a RaceQuip five-point harness. He wore a HANS device paired with a motorcycle helmet. While he emerged from the wreck relatively unscathed, he can’t say the same for his car.
“It’s trashed,” Vance said. “There isn’t a straight panel on it, and all four wheels have bent suspensions.”
For a living, Vance manages a body shop.
“These guys I work with are all involved in racing,” said Vance. “I’ve been at my job 13 years, and they’ve been racing and having fun all along. This year, I decided to join them.”
The rookie put together his own car.
“I put a lot of work into it over last winter,” Vance said. “It had a beautiful paint job.”
The wreck won’t deter Tim Vance from racing again.
“I’m already looking for another Cavalier,” said Vance. “I’ll build a new race car over the winter and go right back at it.”
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.
