Two flips, two races in a row, but Joey Vaccaro kept coming back. His tenacity paid off, winning the longest race of the year for the sportsman modifieds at Grandview Speedway, the Firecracker 40.
(For more on those flips, read “Joey Vaccaro: Flips Two Races in a Row.”)
The first flip twisted the cage and bent a main frame rail. Thanks to Butch Getz, Vaccaro had another car to run, but ended up flipping that, too.
“It was a more costly crash than the first one because we broke the rear end and bent the front clip,” Vaccaro, of Reading, Pennsylvania, said. “The front clip was bent slightly, and it is still bent to this day.”
He, his father, Joseph Jr.; and grandfather Joseph Sr. repaired what they could and returned last week to Grandview.
“I chose to run at the back of the pack to test the car,” said Vaccaro. “I just wanted to get the car back out there and get my feet wet.”
Then, Vaccaro made some changes over the week.
“I was used to running the older frame,” Vaccaro said. “After running last week with the new frame, I found the new frame was reacting better to any adjustments we were making to it.”
Despite the setbacks the weeks before, Vaccaro felt good the night of the Firecracker 40.
“We read the racetrack really well,” said Vaccaro. “It did exactly what we thought it would do — there wasn’t that much change from the heat to the feature. Our hardest decision was to choose between the 48- and 50-compound tire for the right rear.”
When cars came in from the consi with high tire temperatures, some drivers opted for the harder 50 compound.
“If you go with the harder compound tire and let it sit, it seals over, and you screw yourself,” Vaccaro said. “We stayed away from the hard tire. We made one minor suspension change and adjusted our stagger.”
Vaccaro started the feature second and led every lap of the 40-lap feature.
When Vaccaro entered tech, an inspector commented on the good condition of his right-rear tire.
“I tried to keep the tires under me,” Vaccaro said. “When you are out front you can control the race and that helps you a lot.”
Joey Vaccaro seemed to feel a sense of relief with the victory, too.
“For me, as a driver, I needed the win in the worst of ways,” said Vaccaro. “We were putting in so much work — everyone was ready to throw in the towel. Butch and his crew kept us motivated.”
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.
