By Anthony Caruso III | Publisher
Drag racer “Super Dave” Adkins has released a statement after being involved in an accident on Friday. He crashed into Justin Swanstrom during The Great 8 at Maple Grove Raceway in Mohnton, Pennsylvania.
Swanstrom experienced a fire midway through the race. Then, towards the finish line, Adkins lost control of his vehicle and rear-ended Prenup.
This caused an extensive fire to Prenup in the front of the car. Swanstrom had to withdraw from the event.
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“Well not being a superstitious person we did have a terrible Friday the 13th at Maple Grove NPK,” Adkins said in a statement. “Prayers to the other drivers involved in accidents this weekend. Hopefully, they can get the race finished on Sunday with no other accidents. [A] combination of off and on rain, very wet weather overall, [and] a fresh scraped green track surface made for some slippery runs from many of the first cars down on Friday night. Before running as the 2nd pair of the Great 8 race, I believe there were 3 bad small tire accidents including one big fire and a hard wall hit.
“Jerry Bird and Ryan Martin were [the] first pair and they both on decent runs for the conditions. Ryan had the chutes out and crossed nearly hitting both walls by inches. Track Crew went out and brushed the track with the tractor because of pollen. So we were running Justin Swanstrom in the left lane. We both left together and he got out about a car on me before his car caught fire. My car left great and at around 2.2 seconds, I pedaled my car. My car had drifted a bit left and then a bit right but I was not having to drive the car much at all. At about 400-500 feet, my car was not spinning the rear tires and I was not having to drive through [the] car. Everything was good from my standpoint until I lifted off the throttle and I believe the surface was so slick at that point in the track that it was like putting the brakes on while driving on ice. My chutes were not out yet.”
Adkins said he did not have a chance to steer the car away. He said it just happened.
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“Car just darted left and ran into Justin’s right rear quarter. Then [my] car hit the left wall with the left rear wheel and quarter panel. Very sorry that I ended up making Justin’s situation way worse. After I hit, Justin and the left wall were both sliding and spinning together ending up around the 1/4 mile stripe on the opposite side of the track. I ended up facing backward on the track near the wall and Justin’s front end facing my front end. He got out right away and was over the wall. His car was burning in front of me about 10 feet away and I couldn’t get my driver’s door open due [to] the damage, so as I was attempting to get out my passenger door, Justin jumped back over the wall and worked with a Hero and fellow racer Manny Buginga who had run from the starting line to come help.
“He and Justin ripped my door off [and] helped get me out of the car. I was so fortunate my car wasn’t on fire. [I] want to thank all of the people who helped me to safety. I have been drag racing my entire life since being able to drive and racing fast heads up for over 10 years. This is my first and hopefully last crash. This was a very unfortunate accident and I’m hoping to learn from what happened.”
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