Vault Productions was on hand Sunday at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl filming the season ending SK Modified feature at the shoreline oval.
The feature ultimately was stopped short after 42 laps after the SK Modified driven by Tim Jordan got put into the backstretch wall and then ended up taking down a large area of the turn three catch fence.
Check out the sneak peek video below from Vault Productions.
Great coverage by Sid! Wow!
Glad everyone is ok. Timmy can’t be too happy I’d imagine
Don’t see how the car comes back out onto the track unless the cables did exactly what they were intended to do.
Yes, the cables did do exactly what they were designed to do. Someone must have know what they were doing when the system was installed.
If I were Jordan I would not be happy with the 74 running him up into the wall.
Bad spotter or non driver or both is what happened there . Wasn’t that Reen a wreck fest at Stafford also ?
I can see the natural reaction from the Speedbowl faithful is to circle the wagons. Everything worked as it should, stuff happens at races so fix the fence and on to Smacktoberfest sans the demo derby to some fans chagrin next weekend.
If you’re saying nothing can or should be done to learn from what happened and improve it then I would not agree with that.
Like somebody posted on FB. Timmy Jordan got Reened.
Bet no one’s going to be close to that fence anymore 😕
See them moving things to get new poles installed.
God Bless all those involved.
Speedbowl faithful circling the wagons? And the Stafford faithful wouldn’t be doing the same thing? Let’s be real here!
Can I see rules for standing within proximity of the pit fence? Can I see rules for minimum age of individuals in the pit? Yep, many hours of deep conversation over the off seasons with an announcement prior to the 2022 season.
Glenn Reen is a weapon on the track So glad to see he is no longer at Stafford on Friday nights on a regular basis
The fence did it’s job. From that view that car was entirely in the fence and ended up not going thru
Glad everyone is ok especially jordan, that car looks like it was destroyed, plus luckily nobody hit him when he came off the fence.
The wreck reminded me of the Rocco/Williams clash (with Williams climbing the wall) at Thompson recently. Different fence/wall design/proximity prevented a similar result at the Big T(?).
Earl I agree , I’m a stafford faithful but the first turn pit stands and people standing along fence at Stafford are probably just as close , not sure if cables and fence are any better at Stafford ,haven’t been to speedbowl since improvements there
Remember people were hurt and there hopefully healing . No 1 wanted to or wished this happened to great race fans and crew and drivers that were standing along that fence that most of us have many times.
We go because we love and have a passion. Most of us know and have thought this could happen. See it on internet cars have alot of Kinetic energy and can’t predict these crashes. So happy for what the owner has done to try to protect the drivers and fans with improvement.
Great job Sids you seem to get alot of the good 1’s.
Facebook yesterday
“Michael Gada
Kathy Brennan Tulba the pipe missed major arteries by fractions of an inch. He’s very lucky and pretty sore but he’s going to be fine”
https://www.wfsb.com/video-new-fence-may-have-saved-lives-following-waterford-speedbowl-crash/video_f631d253-5173-562c-b9dc-a33f16478cdc.html
Elect, I was thinking the same thing. Spent many nights standing in turn 1. Won’t do that anymore
I pray officials and fans alike at other stands learn lessons about proximity to the fence. The worst and perhaps most potentially dangerous violations I have witnessed have been at Star.
Fans nonchalantly walk up the fence, perhaps the weakest I have ever seen. (I think the fence remains the one I went to my first race in the mid-to-late’80’s) A 350 super took a portion of it down a while back.
I attend less frequently now, but recall CT having much more presence for safety, officials, cops, emergency personnel, than Star. My uncle and I got moved from sitting underneath the stands one night years ago at Stafford by a trooper decades ago. I think that if Star were on CT and someone walked to the fence under green, they would not stand there long.
A blessing for safety. Thankful for on-the-spot safety personnel and that all in proximity escaped serious harm.
So as I understand it the common thinking now is that the turn one area at Stafford bears a strong similarity to that of turn three at Waterford in terms of risk to fans. I’m not here to tell you not to be wary but there is no similarity between turn one at Stafford and turn three at Waterford.
At Stafford the distance from where the cars are racing in turn one to the fence is far greater then at the Speedbowl but forget that. There’s the railing that does absorb some of the impact. A few feet to the main cabled fencing, a greater distance on an incline to a secondary row of stout cabled fencing then a few more feet up to a space where fans stand. Limited by the stands on one side you can’t stand in front of and the the turn one gate.
At Waterford they are a hand full of feet from the fence and a car that climbs the wall can fall down to the fans whereas at Stafford it would have to ascend.
I can’t speak to the risk factor but the two are not similar at all.
There’s that and the notion that if one track has a flaw that makes the other tracks flaw OK makes no sense. It means two tracks should correcting their flaws.
Doug, rally those wagons, 🙂………..
We knew that was coming didn’t we?
I don’t see how specifically mentioning the measures two tracks have taken without making any judgement regarding their effectiveness is anything but an informed observation. Check it out yourself and tell me where it was wrong. But we know you won’t because this isn’t about distance, barriers or elevation. This was about pay back so now you evened he score and we can move on right big guy……..yeee-haa!
Does anyone remember Corky Cookman ending up in the grandstand off turn 4 at Stafford? Circa 1983
Yep, remember it very well………
Reen is a menace on the track. There is no way that he didn’t know Timmy was there on the outside. He clearly ran Timmy right up to the wall.
Anyone old enough to remember Bodine running Bugsy down the front stretch wall at Stafford?
Thank God no one was seriously hurt!