During this crash sequence, Richie Walls Jr. said he had “enough airtime to think and hope that everything would be okay.” Fortunately, he walked away from the wreck without serious injury.
Walls started the 602 sportsman feature at Georgetown Speedway last Friday in fifth.
“After three restarts, I was in eighth, and started off with a good run,” Walls, of Dagsboro, Delaware, said. “I stayed in my lane on the outside. My car was starting to get pinched by the inside cars. On the frontstretch, while I was approaching the flagstand, an inside car drove right into me. I thought that maybe we were racing for the same real estate until I saw all the videos after the race.”
His car then went airborne.
“I was pitchpoled,” said Walls. My car did a lot of twirlies without completely flipping. Luckily, no one hit me, but one racer told me he drove right under my car while it was in the air. The right-front axle broke in half and a two-foot piece flew into the fence and shattered the flagstand’s plexiglass. Fortunately, the track fencing had been upgraded.”
As a full-time firefighter and EMT, Walls understand the value of safety and came prepared.
“When the car landed on all fours, I didn’t even feel a jolt,” Walls said. “I had a Crash Pad in my seat to protect my spine [and] I also wore a HANS device. I had a little pain in my left hip after the crash, and I was sore the next day.”
In addition, Walls wore a Bell helmet and sat in a ButlerBuilt full-containment seat paired with an Impact five-point harness. While Walls escaped without major injury, his GSR Chassis car did not. Needing both a front and rear clip, Walls will opt for a new one.
“Three weeks ago, I flipped and destroyed my first GSR,” said Walls. “This past weekend, I destroyed my new GSR. We hastily put together the new chassis using what parts were left from the first car — that’s why one door had the pink protective plastic still on its sheet metal. The new car was fast right out of the box. One thing I can attest to is that the chassis kept me safe.”
Richie Walls Jr. planned on racing Super DIRT Week, but he’ll sit this year’s edition out and save for a new car next year.
“I race out of pocket — I have no big money backers,” Walls said. “I’m heartbroken that I lost both of my cars and can no longer go to Super DIRT Week. All I have left is the engine and the drivetrain. I will have to rebuild over the off-season.”
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.
