It didn’t look good for Ty Griffith during the final USRA B-mod feature of the year. Damage from a wreck on the second lap ended his night early at Mason City Motor Speedway. If Dan Hovden won the race, he’d also nab the national USRA title. Griffith couldn’t watch.
“At that point it was out of my hands,” Griffith, of Blairsburg, Iowa, said. “I knew what could happen and what might happen, and I didn’t want to watch. My wife, Jamie, said she would watch the end of the race for me.”
Griffith had come close to a national championship only once before, in 2020, when he finished third. After the race ended, Jamie walked stoically back to Griffith’s pit.
“[Jamie] wasn’t happy or sad,” said Griffith. “She just walked up and gave me a big hug … and then whispered, ‘We did it.’ She totally faked me out.”
Hovden had finished fourth, coming up just nine points short. Griffith credits his championship, though, to one race in particular at Sports Park Raceway in Fort Dodge, Iowa.
“We had a bad car count one night,” Griffith said. “So, I didn’t finish the heat race and started last in the feature. I passed the nine cars there and won, getting eight extra passing points.”
Griffith also cited another reason for finally winning a national title.
“USRA gives a driver 100 bonus points for competing in the [USRA] Nationals at Lucas Oil Speedway,” said Griffith. “I never took advantage of that bonus — this was the first season I went there. I never took a lap there and won my heat race on the first night.”
Ty Griffith raced a personal record of 57 features, winning 18 times. He also won track championships at Fairmont Raceway, Hamilton County Speedway, and Sports Park Raceway.
Ultimately, however, Griffith said one person played the biggest part to his success.
“My wife, Jamie, is the glue that holds everything together,” Griffith said. “She never complains about my racing. In fact, she encourages me to race more. She’s the kind of spouse a racer needs.”
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.
