In 26 years of drag racing, Jeremy Holbrook never crashed. However, during his rookie year in oval-track racing, he took to the skies with this wreck. It occurred Sunday in the modified feature at Mudlick Valley Raceway in Wallingford, Kentucky.
“I can’t remember the crash,” Holbrook, of West Liberty, Kentucky, said. “I was just past the flagstand, getting ready to set it up for turn one, when the J-bar broke. The rear end came around, and it shot me up the track and into the wall.
“The car landed on all fours — and I came to when it did. I was able to get out of the car by myself. I did not need any medical treatment.”
Holbrook sat in a Kirkey full-containment seat, with a RaceQuip five-point harness. He wore a RaceQuip helmet paired with a HANS device.
“I’m still a little bit sore, but I’m alive,” said Holbrook. “I sure hope I never take a spill like that again.”
He raced a BadFast Chassis this season that he bought brand new.
“The car was destroyed,” Holbrook said. “The front end, back end, and everything else was damaged. The cage around me was okay, but the seat bar was torn loose.”
Holbrook switched to oval-track racing this season because of the excitement he saw on the dirt.
“I always enjoyed watching those drivers in round-track racing,” said Holbrook. “I decided to try it. Let me tell you, there is nothing like the thrill of the horsepower in a modified and sliding around a dirt track. I love it and I love doing it. In drag racing, you go an eight [-second pass] of a quarter mile. In dirt racing you get 20 laps, and that is more of a rush and more of a thrilling experience for me.”
The wreck didn’t deter Jeremy Holbrook from racing ovals.
“I’m going to look at a new modified as we speak right now,” Holbrook said. “I want to get back onto the round tracks as soon as I can.”
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.
