Idaho Racing News

Travis Anderson led the Legends 35 lap main right up until this point in the race. As Anderson was working hes way through the gauntlet of lapped cars one of the drivers and Anderson contacted and the above photo was the result. Both cars were damaged but apparently not structurally. (After reviewing the tape it is not completely clear if the driver that contacted Anderson had been bumped by another competitor or not.)

The silver lining in this cloud, if any, is that neither of the drivers was hurt. They did that long (relatively) walk back to the pits instead of that longer ride to the hospital in the big blue box. Neither car seems to be structurally damaged and both should be back for the next event which is August 30 and then followed up with another on the 31st.

On that same line of thinking. Kind of like that theory that if you give a million monkeys a million typewriters eventually they could randomly reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. (I don't buy it but... there it is.) If you wait long enough at Meridian Speedway you will see something almost as amazing. Don Kithcart, who is possibly the sports most careful race car driver had two mishaps on Saturday night. He spun during the 35 lap main event in the Non Winged Sprints. His wife told me a few seconds later that is the first time he has ever spun at Meridian Speedway, including practice laps and all of the racing he has done. Then a few laps later as he was following Sharde Bement in to turn three his brakes went out. He pumped frantically to no avail and then lined up his car to take, and deliver, the impact as straight as possible. Bement got shoved harder in to the corner than she could handle and spun near the apex of turns 3 and 4. Joe Ransom, running in second, either contacted Bement or the wall and flipped his car. Ransom got back out and made the long walk to the pits with out the help of the box. His car though, needed soem help from Kirby and his Pink Towing wrecker to get back to the pit area. As the car passed by the stands it looked to have mostly suspension damage and we hope he can make it back out soon.

Now to add to the unimaginable.
The Late Models ran green to checker with out a caution (except for a yellow flag for a restart). Okay, not amazing enough for you. The Hornets also ran green to checkered with out a caution.

So to recap. Two flips in the Legends and Non Wing Sprints and no cautions or race stoppages of any kind in the Hornets.

So if you come to the races often enough you will see some amazing stuff. Maybe not like a million monkeys with a million typewriters but at least a million times more entertaining.

See you at the races.

Post Script
I spoke with Don Kithcart after the races and I can tell you he is really broken up about the wreck even though it was not his fault. It was his car that failed that pushed Bement loose on turn three that led to the chain of events that caused Ransom to be upside down. Don is, as I said before, one of the most careful drivers you will see on the track. He has a great deal of respect for the other drivers and would rather back off and lose a race or a position than to put another driver in a bad position or make contact. I hope most of the fans understand that. He is too good of a driver to make a rookie mistake and did not make a mistake this time. He aimed his car to hit Bement's car straight on rather than hit at an angle or move up or inside to cause a worse wreck. It was just an unfortunate chain of events. Fortunatly no one was hurt. And most of the damage was to points and metal.

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That amazing photo is by Barnard Greenwood of www.spooledproductions.com