Damaged car ends Ford’s night on first lap

Takes first at pre-race event

Ford

His car was damaged in a wreck on the first lap, so his evening ended prematurely.

Ford, of Crescent City, a longtime racer who won the North State Challenge racing Series in 2007 and 2008, was competing in his first stock car race of the year at the Redwood Acres Speedway in Eureka.

While “disappointed” with the outcome, Ford said it was great to be back on the track.

“This happens to everyone. I’m not pleased the car got torn up but I’m still excited to be back.” he said. “The car ran well so I have confidence we’ll be back in championship form again.”

Ford finished first in a 6-lap shootout trophy dash race before the main event. He received $100 and a trophy, which he quickly handed to his nearly 3-year-old grandson, Landon, in the stands.

During his pole position qualifying race, he took second and was only one-hundredth of a second behind the first-place qualifier, he said.

“The car definitely ran awesome,” Ford said.

A six-car pileup occurred on the first lap of the main race.

“I was coming around and I saw this big wreck,” he said.

He was able to avoid the initial wreck, but another car  spinning out of control crossed directly into Ford’s path and the two vehicles smacked into one another, severely damaging the left front suspension of Ford’s car.

While race officials took a 30-minute break to clear the race track, Ford’s racing crew frantically went to work to repair the car.

When the 30 minutes were up, Ford said that his crew had done a remarkable job getting the car raceable again.

The problem was that when he tested his steering wheel box it “felt pretty tight,” and there were concerns it could cause  problems during the race. So, the decision was made to play it safe and call it a night.

Ford hopes to race again in Eureka in about a month.

Ford lessened his racing scheduled last season due to personal tragedy when he lost both his father, Bud Ford, and crew member and close friend Vestel Skaggs in a six-month period. Ford plans to resume running more races this year and go back to a full-time schedule next season.

A feature story on Ford appeared on the front page of The Daily Triplicate on Saturday.