Hobby stock racer Quentin Regennitter went for quite the ride at Buena Vista Raceway. Fortunately, he was able to walk away without injury. The wild wreck occurred during the feature last Wednesday at the Alta, Iowa, dirt track.
“The right-rear tire blew out just as I was entering turn one,” Regennitter, of Correctionville, Iowa, said. “I went over three times — once completely in the air. I stayed awake through the whole wreck and was able to shut the ignition off so there wouldn’t be a chance of fire.”
Regennitter sat in a Kirkey seat paired with a RaceQuip five-point harness. He wore a RaceQuip helmet and neck collar.
“I was not hurt at all,” said Regennitter. “I was even pain-free the next day. My car was new this year — a Ghost chassis. [They build] a really safe car — it remained intact.”
The rollover damaged two trailing arms, two front A-arms, and supports for the fenders. That’s it. Regennitter could not finish the race, though, placing 16th among a 20-car feature.
The race marked the end of the season for Buena Vista Raceway as well as for Quentin Regennitter. He returned to the hobby stocks after running sport mods for five years. Prior to that, Regennitter raced hobby stocks for four years.
“I stepped back into hobby stocks this year because the hobby stock class has its appeal,” Regennitter said. “Not only is there close competition, but the cost of a hobby stock is less than a sport mod’s cost — mostly because tires and shocks are cheaper on a hobby stock.
After this wreck, he’ll have all off-season to get it back together and make some money to improve his ride from his job as a train conductor.
“As of now, I plan to fix the car and be back in the hobby stock division next season,” said Regennitter. “I have projects to work on all winter, and I’ll be putting in as much time as I can working on the railroad.”
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.
