Some might call it a weekend after this wreck, but not Brady Bacon and his team. He wrecked on Friday at Illinois’ Macon Speedway. Bacon then won with that same car on Saturday at Macon.
“The frame was not damaged, but we had to replace the whole suspension,” Bacon, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, said. “The rear end, radius rods, and torque tubes were damaged.”
On Friday, Bacon proved that even a four-time USAC national sprint car champion can make a mistake. It occurred during the third lap of the USAC Amsoil Sprint Car National Championship feature.
“What was the cause of this crash?” said Bacon. “It was me. We were racing three-wide. I slipped and hit the wall with my right-rear wheel.”
Though his car crashed in spectacular fashion, Bacon walked away without injury. He sat in The Joie of Seating full-containment seat paired with a Simpson five-point harness. He wore a Simpson helmet, with a HANS device.
After his team repaired his car, they went back at it the next night at Macon Speedway. This time, Bacon found himself in victory lane rather than on the back of a wrecker.
The win broke a record, too. Bacon now holds USAC national sprint car victories in the most states, with 13. Those wins came in Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and now Illinois.
This year, Brady Bacon has eight wins, including a victory in the winged, World of Outlaws sprint cars. In the USAC national sprint cars, he has five and sits third in points, 32 markers behind leader Jake Swanson.
Bacon heads to Eldora Speedway in Ohio tonight for the start of four-day race weekend. Prelims for The Eldora Million takes place tonight. Then the feature that pays $1,002,023 to the winner runs on Thursday. The Kings Royal follows on Friday and Saturday.
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.
