The Spring Nationals in Houston this past weekend proved to be extremely eventful. During qualifying, both Jonathan Gray and Sidnei Frigo crashed. Gray blows a tire, which pushes him up against the wall. He was able to walk away. Frigo gets out of the groove and goes into – and then over – the wall in a series of flips. He was taken to the hospital for evaluation and came away with a broken arm. In true racer fashion, he wanted to be back at the track as soon as possible which, for him, meant making an appearance on Sunday – just two days after his crash.
Switching over to eliminations didn’t get rid of the dangers of the class – it just delayed it. During the final round of eliminations, Ricky Smith goes up against Jim Whiteley. The first dramatic moment of the round: Whiteley qualified 18th this weekend. Normally, qualifying 18th means you don’t make the field, but the two crashes in qualifying left two open spots. Whiteley filled one of them. The second dramatic moment: Ricky was looking for his second win in a row – in the second race of the season. The third and final dramatic moment happened during the run. When both cars launched, Whiteley shook, causing him to get out of it, luckily. As soon as that happens, Ricky shot across the center line in front of Whiteley, tagging the wall, then shot back in front of Whiteley, tagging the other wall. He came to a stop in front of Whiteley, who stayed off the throttle in an attempt to avoid Ricky. Both drivers were ok. Because Ricky crossed the center line, he was disqualified, and Whiteley was declared the winner.
Overall, it was a crazy weekend. We’re glad everybody walked away from it. See everyone in Atlanta in a couple weeks!
Share On
