SpeedSTR driver Cale Zangli just earned his best finish in three years of racing at Action Track USA — a fifth. Then, seconds after crossing the finish line, his car flipped, landing upside-down at the end of the frontstretch.
“Just my luck — I get my best finish yet, and then destroy my car,” Zangli, of Upper Black Eddy, Pennsylvania, said. “The left-rear radius-rod mount broke, dropping the rod into the clay after I passed the flagstand. It pole-vaulted me into the air sideways. I barrel-rolled and then flipped.”
Zangli’s only suffered a bruised leg from the crash. After the track safety crew checked in on him, Zangli requested them to right his car onto all fours. He climbed from the wreckage on his own.
“I was glad I didn’t have a concussion,” said Zangli. “I spared no expense for safety — I just installed a new Ultra Shield full-containment seat and I’m glad I did. It was nice to have it come through for me in such a violent crash.”
Zangli paired that seat with an Impact five-point harness. He wore a Bell helmet with a Simpson Hybrid head-and-neck restraint.
“If you are racing a SpeedSTR at Kutztown, sooner or later you will end up on your lid, so being prepared is a must,” Zangli said. “My car did a full summersault in the air, twisted on its nose, landed upside-down — and I walked away.”
As the result of the flip, his SpeedSTR needed a new rear clip. As for the broken mount, Zangli did not know why it failed.
“I bought an older frame — a 2017 — and thought I went through it thoroughly,” said Zangli. “I didn’t know the history of the car.”
Cale Zangli managed to return to the track yesterday, but various mechanical gremlins hindered another top five this week.
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.
