This crash left Gregg Hamman sore. He came to an abrupt stop during the IMCA sport mod feature at Park Jefferson Speedway in Jefferson, South Dakota.
“The 17 and 48 cars got together, turning the 48 sideways,” Hamman, of Kingsley, Iowa, said. “The 16W hit the back of the 48, and the 48 came down the track into my lane. I hit the 48, and my car came to a complete and sudden stop as it flipped over onto its roof.
“I’ve raced sport mods for seven years, and that was the hardest hit I had ever taken. I knew it was going to be bad the second before impact.”
Hamman sat in a Kirkey seat, with rib supports, paired with a Crow Safety Gear five-point harness. He wore a Velocity Race Gear helmet and a neck collar.
“MedStar is the best safety crew in racing,” said Hamman of the safety crew’s response. “It was a scary situation being upside-down. I won’t use a containment seat because of a situation like this happening. It was tough getting out of the car in a regular racing seat.”
Hamman cited his only injury to his ribs. He did not see a doctor after the crash.
“My rib cage was sore, but I was able to get back to work on Monday,” Hamman, who builds truck scales for a living, said. “The seat was bent from the impact, and that caused my ribs to bruise.”
The crash badly damaged Hamman’s car, a 2012 Razor Chassis.
“Everything on the left side of the car appears to be okay,” said Hamman. “I’m hoping the engine and tranny are okay.”
This season, Gregg Hamman raced locally — at Park Jefferson Speedway and The New Raceway Park — due to the high cost of fuel.
“We have a spare car in the garage,” Hamman said. “It would be nice to have it ready for this weekend, but the worst case it will be ready the following week.”
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.
