Sportsman modified driver Joey Vaccaro (15G) understands the old adage, “If I didn’t have bad luck, I would have no luck at all.” In two straight race nights at Grandview Speedway, he has flipped car, with the latest occurance coming Saturday with Kenny Bock (6) getting collected.
Three weeks ago, the first flip totaled his 2018 Bicknell chassis. After that wreck, Butch Getz, who fields modifieds for Duane Howard, gave Vaccaro a used chassis to rebuild so he could compete the next weekend. That weekend rained out, which leads us to last Saturday.
“I came off of turn four in my heat race, got a good run, and went to the bottom of the track — the best line during the heats,” Vaccaro, of Reading, Pennsylvania, said. “I got to the bottom and the lane next to me was open. Two cars got into each other, checked up and came down to my lane. I hooked the bumper of Ebby Ridge and then I had nothing to do but hold on. By time my car got unhooked, I was into the wall, going up and over, with Kenny Bock getting into me and also going over.”
Vaccaro sat in a full-containment seat from The Joie of Seating, with Simpson belts holding him in. He wore a Simpson carbon-fiber helmet paired with a NecksGen head-and-neck restraint.
“It was unfortunate that the first wreck was the result of the error of another driver, but this one was an unfortunate racing deal,” said Vaccaro. “Hopefully we can save the chassis that Butch Getz gave us. We were ready to race the next week thanks to Butch. Then we sat because of the rainouts. It all just sucks.”
The crash cracked the casing on the DMI quick-change rear end, but Vaccaro has a spare. The Bicknell chassis needs a front clip and might need a rear one, too.
Both Vaccaro and Bock were not seriously hurt. In his Bicknell, Bock sat in a Kirkey full-containment seat, with Simpson belts, and wore a Simpson helmet with a HANS device. Bock said his knees were “mildly sore,” and his car incurred a bent front axle and cosmetic damage.
“I wasn’t hurt — I credit my safety equipment,” Bock, of Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, said. “Now I have three flips and three wins in the sportsman division — not a good stat to have.”
Like Bock, Joey Vaccaro has flipped before, too.
“Ironically, 10 years ago I flipped twice in one year in a slingshot,” said Vaccaro. “I’m dejected. I keep telling myself, ‘That’s racing,’ but I’ve never had worse luck then this.”
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.
