Hobby stock driver Matt Wahl knew the odds of him making the Big Dance at the IMCA Super Nationals at Boone Speedway. So, he pushed hard. Unfortunately, the odds pushed back.
The rollover occurred on the second lap of his heat race on Monday.
“I was running low, coming into [turns] one and two,” Wahl, of Norwalk, Iowa, said. “A pileup was happening in the middle of the track. I accelerated hoping to miss the piled-up cars. A group of them came down from the outside and flipped me over.”
Fortunately, Wahl emerged from his car not injured. He sat in a Kirkey full-containment seat, with a Crow Safety Gear harness. He wore a Zamp helmet and a head-and-neck restraint.
“[The] ratchet belts from Crow Safety Products … they kept me snug in my seat,” said Wahl. “I released the belts, lifted myself up, and crawled out the right side of my car.”
After exiting his hobby stock, Wahl took a bow. The track crew returned his ride to right-side up, and then drove it into the pits. His 2020 car from Assassin Chassis incurred mostly body damage. Once back into his pit, Wahl’s wife, Lizzie, and daughter Zoey went into action to help.
“I’ve been rolled three times in 15 years of racing — here, Marshalltown Speedway, and Stuart International Speedway,” Wahl said. “If my car is running, I’ll do everything I can to get back out there.
“Lizzie and Zoey got right to work banging out the panels and reattaching them. I couldn’t do this without them.
The Wahl family’s efforts helped Matt Wahl return to action on Tuesday. He started outside pole in his heat race of eight cars, but he said his setup was off. Wahl hung on for a sixth-place finish, which qualified him for the B feature. However, he did the math. Due to the rollover, even if Wahl won the B feature, he would not have scored enough points to transfer. Wahl decided to sit that feature out and watch.
It’s the Super Nationals — stuff happens, sometimes out of a driver’s control,” said Wahl. “The odds are against advancing.”
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.
