Before this year, Jack Butler never drove a SpeedSTR. That changed when a bad wreck injured his cousin Cale Zangli and Zangli needed someone to fill in. And Butler has shown serious flashes of promise in his car, finishing no worse than sixth.
Butler comes from a dirt modified background. His best dirt modified finish this year? 14th.
“Driving a SpeedSTR is not as different from driving a modified than I thought it would be,” Butler, of Phillipsburg, New Jersey, said. “They handle similarly. In either you have to keep the car up its bars or springs. They have to be loaded all the time to be fast.”
Butler received the opportunity after Zangli rolled his SpeedSTR at the Speedway at Pagoda MC on April 26.
“I was in pain right away from the initial hit,” Zangli, of Phillipsburg, New Jersey, said. “My car went up, came down and bottomed out. I had shooting pain go up my back. Then, the car started rolling.”
Zangli incurred compression fractures in his T3, T4, T6 and T7 vertebrae. He sat in an Ultra Shield full-containment seat paired with a Simpson five-point harness.
“Sprint car driver Anthony Macri broke his back on the same night in a similar wreck,” Zangli said. “His crew chief, Joe Mooney, called me to discuss my crash. Macri had compression fractures of the T4 and T5. These compression fractures are happening more and more to sprint car drivers.”
Doctors told Zangli he could not work or race for at least 8 weeks. That means time away from his job as a self-employed contractor. After some research, he will install a foam seat insert from Sharp Advantage Safety Products. Zangl considered the CASM system, seat mounts that reduce the shock from an impact to the spine.
“CASM is nice, but the price point is insane for a small-time local driver,” Zangli said. “CASM is $1500 versus $300 for foam. Going to get the foam. Pour the foam into a seat, put your suit on, sit in the seat and it molds to your body. Foam is the hot ticket. I love that they are bringing NASCAR technology to us.”
Zangli had an obligation to race for sponsor Haney Services. His SpeedSTR needed “a bunch of brackets,” all four bars, the Panhard bar, shocks and driveline components. Zangli’s crew got to work while he called on his cousin Jack Butler to fill in the driver’s seat.
“I knew I had to pivot,” Zangli said. “Missing work sucks. Missing racing sucks. I’ll just have to deal with it.”
Butler debuted with a sixth at the Speedway at Pagoda MC, and then followed up with a fifth, a fifth at Action Track USA and then a fourth back at Pagoda.
“Of course, he wants to stay on as my driver, but I want to drive my car, too,” Zangli said. “It is so cool to see a family member doing so well in my car.”
Zangli will soon visit doctors for clearance to resume racing activities, but the experience behind his SpeedSTR has opened Butler’s eyes.
“Driving Cale’s SpeedSTR was some of the best fun I ever had in racing,” Butler said. “I’ve been thinking about getting one now. Or, if there are opportunities available, I’d jump at the chance to keep on driving one.”
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.
