It seemed like any other long haul for Andrew Richardson. He had just finished ninth the night before with his modified in the Open Wheel Showdown. And on Sunday morning he was headed home to Meridian, Idaho, from The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Barely a couple of hours into his nine-plus-hour journey his diesel-powered 2017 Ford F-350 suddenly quit running. They coasted off Nevada 318 onto the intersection of a farm road in Hiko, Nevada, population 124.
“I thought it might be a fuel problem,” said Kyle Tellstrom, who was helping Richardson. “I did an initial internet search to find causes for an F-350 to suddenly quit. We checked everything and couldn’t get it going.”
While Richardson hiked up the farm road to the house at its end, Tellstrom got on Facebook to ask his friends for help.
“You hear a lot recently about how bad social media has become,” Tellstrom said. “When I posted we had broken down, the response was amazing. We were cold, tired, and hungry. Soon, sprint car driver Casey Tillman stopped by with breakfast for the three of us and stayed to help us.”
A who’s who in the West Coast pavement racing scene reached out — people such as Dave Arce, Brad Hunziker, Eddie Secord, and Wesley Weed, among others.
Meanwhile, Richardson finally reached the house at the end of the road.
“The farmer came to the door — it was an old-school, traditional farm scene,” said Richardson. “The farmer and his wife were getting ready to go to church. They welcomed us to keep our truck on his road, inside his gate to protect it.”
Tillman disconnected the trailer, and he, Tellstrom, crew member Jimmy Dawson, pushed the pickup up the farmer’s road.
As far as the trailer, one of their friends, Connor Elliott, came by. Elliot had crewed for Troy DeCaire and was on his way back to Idaho. He hooked the trailer to his truck and towed it back to Meridian.
To get Andrew Richardson and team home, Nick Escobedo, who crews for sprint car racer Mike Murgoitio, came to their aid. Richardson, Tellstrom, and Dawson hitched a ride with him to get back to Meridian.
“It is amazing how our racing family jumped out to help when we were in a moment of need,” Richardson said. “People three to four hours away offered to come and help us. People stopped and offered help as they were passing by. It only took an hour and a half and were able to figure things out.”
As far as the truck, Tellstrom and Richardson ventured back on Monday with a borrowed truck and flatbed to pick up the truck. A fellow racer and son of the Meridian Speedway promoter, Colton Nelson, loaned 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.
