Despite eight years in wingless sprints, Jadon Rogers had never raced at Big Diamond Speedway before. That inexperience played a hand when he and his car took to the skies at the Pottsville, Pennsylvania, dirt oval on June 13.
“Most of the drivers said that Big Diamond Speedway is a track that is really slick,” Rogers, of Worthington, Indiana, said. “We made our car too tight. The track was hooked up. It wasn’t a mistake — it was a call based on the information we had.”
His wingless sprint car dug in on the second lap of the heat race for the USAC Amsoil Sprint Car National Championship event. The rest is history.
“I’ve never been in the air that high,” said Rogers. “I’ve had multiple crashes in racing, but there is no way to measure this one. I wasn’t injured at all, but the Maxim chassis had to be completely rebuilt. The cage was fine. We are able to repair it.”
Rogers credited his Maxim chassis fielded by Michael Dutcher Motorsports and his safety equipment for being able to walk away. He sat in an Ultra Shield full containment seat with inserts from Sharp Advantage Safety Products. A Simpson harness kept Rogers fastened for the turbulent trip. He wore a Stilo helmet and a Simpson Hybrid head-and-neck restraint.
Unhurt, Rogers competed in the feature with backup a car, starting from the rear, finishing 20th. His Pennsylvania swing ended there, though, forgoing subsequent events at Williams Grove Speedway, Port Royal Speedway, and Action Track USA.
Jadon Rogers races full-time in addition to helping out his father Kyle at his shop, Midwest Dyno Services in Mooresville, Indiana. He currently sits 15th in the USAC Amsoil Sprint Car National Championship and looks to return to the tour this weekend when it travels to Wisconsin.
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.
