What did Tracy Pickering do when he flipped his modified sportsman and landed on all four wheels during qualifying? He kept going. Pickering timed in third quickest at North Alabama Speedway.
“I got to the track late and went out at the end of time trials,” said Pickering, of Shannon, Mississippi. “The track was a little too slick, so I let off of the gas and the car began sliding into the third turn on my fourth lap. The frame caught the cushion and flipped me over. The car landed on its roof and rolled over onto all fours. I hit the starter button and kept it going.”
Video by Justin Adams
Pickering admitted he may have had some motivation to put the pedal to the metal. He just started driving for car owner Charles Moudy, who also owns PineRidge Speedway. Moudy told him if he wins five modified features, he’d buy a super late model. Pickering had raced super late models the last four years.
“We shook on it, so it’s a real deal,” Pickering, of Shannon, Mississippi, said. “There was no way I wouldn’t try to make the feature and try to win.”
As far as the aftermath of the flip, Pickering said he had “just a bruised knee from hitting the steering column and a bruised ego from turning over.” Oh yeah, and a big dent in the roof of the 2022 modified from Shaw Race Cars.
Pickering sat in a ButlerBuilt full-containment seat with a RaceQuip five-point harness. He wore a Velocity helmet, but was not wearing a head-and-neck restraint at the time.
“I left my head-and-neck restraint in another driver’s trailer,” Pickering said. “It was a mistake I won’t make again. The good Lord was watching down on me this time — no injuries and not even a bent spoiler — just a dent in the roof.”
Officials were astounded that Pickering continued onto the track.
“I saw the track crew chasing me on ATVs and saw them yelling — I am deaf so I had to read their expressions,” said Pickering. “They had confused looks on their faces, wondering why I kept going. I just waved and took off.”
Then when he went over the scales after qualifying, he had more expressions to read.
“The scale guy had a confused look on his face,” Pickering said. “He looked at me like I was crazy or something. I guess he never saw a car turn over and the driver keeping cool enough to continue to race. I agree it must have been weird to see.”
Tracy Pickering finished sixth in his heat, putting him 11th on the starting grid. He placed seventh in the feature. Pickering placed eighth the following night at Magnolia Motor Speedway.
“I want my next five modified races to be wins,” said Pickering. “I can’t wait to get back into a super late model.”
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.
