Modified driver Austin Dean had been through it before. He had an ATV accident in 2024 that resulted in a concussion. After this hard crash last Wednesday, Austin knew something wasn’t right.
He “felt fuzzy” after waking up the next morning. Austin’s parents took him to the hospital, as his doctors instructed them to do after the ATV accident.
“We went to the hospital to make sure Austin did not have a brain bleed,” Austin’s father, Jason, said. “He did not.”
Austin said he feels fine now.
“When his car landed, Austin took a good lick on the left side of his head,” Jason said. “He had the very best of safety equipment. It is just the way the car landed that caused his head to smack the side of the seat, which was padded.”
Austin wore a Bell RS7 carbon-fiber helmet, with a Simpson hybrid head-and-neck restraint. He sat in a full-containment eat from The Joie of Seating, with 2-inch Impact Racing belts.
The crash occurred during his heat race for the Short Track Super Series modified event at Action Track USA.
“I hit a rut,” Austin, of Bridgeville, Delaware, said. “Then my car hiked up and went over and over again.”
Austin landed upside down. He requested the track crew to flip him over and he walked away. Unfortunately, his 2022 Bicknell chassis isn’t so lucky. Jason described the car as “totaled,” with eight cracks, a bent motor plate and a broken bellhousing.
“We will salvage what we can,” Jason said. “We have another 2022 Bicknell chassis and will transfer the parts to that chassis.”
Austin Dean will see a neurologist this week to clear him before returning to the seat of a race car. In the meantime, the Dean family is actively working on preparing for the car for the next race.
“I’m ready to go,” Austin said. “With a little bit of work, we will have the spare car ready.”
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.
