The track will be ready to go the next week: New light poles installed; New safety fence on the way for Friday
Charles McDonald went out to qualify around Lake Cumberland Speedway on Saturday night. The throttle hung on the machine entering turn 3 of the 3/8-mile dirt track in Burnside, Kentucky. The car then bicycled the wall through turn 4.
Near the exit of turn 4, the car jumped over the wall. It went right through the catch fence and was halted by a light pole. The light pole snapped in half and the race car landed on it’s roof just in front of the grandstands.
It was a near packed house at the 2,500 seat complex. The crowd was their to support the weekly show. The driver walked away and no fans suffered injury.
Watch the Lake Cumberland Speedway crash video below.
“The track was in great shape. Unfortunately, we did have a freak accident here on the front stretch,” Lake Cumberland Speedway officials stated in a video following the incident.
“Everybody’s fine. Nobody’s hurt. Everybody’s safe.”
“But, we did have a freak accident. Because of that, we’re not going to be able to finish racing tonight.”
“Just know, if you were here in attendance tonight. You will be able to use those armbands for our huge event.”
Lake Cumberland Speedway is set to host the Down N’ Dirty 40/Mini-Stock Madness this Friday night. The Schaeffer’s Oil Southern Nationals Bonus Series will roll into the speedway paying $4,000 to the winner. In addition, mini-stocks will race for $1,000.
The gate fee would have been a little bit higher. However, if the fans held a ticket for the weekly show this past Saturday, that will get in for free this Friday.
“No additional cost. That’s what I’m gonna do, as promoter to make that right. We done what we could. But, there was no possible way to get it in tonight.”
“We’ll have a bigger and better catch fence, lights fixed and stuff.”
“The crew that we had on hand that took care of everybody… We want to thank them for doing that. Everybody was right there for Charles. He was fine. He said he’s a little bit sore. It just shows the safety of these cars.”
Stand back from the fence…
“I had some people actually cuss me tonight for asking kids to get off the grass. You wanna know why we ask kids to get off the grass? For what happened right here. We could have had several people killed.”
“We ask you to stay up off the fence. Anything can happen. This are high horsepower cars, they go really fast. They get up over the fence.”
“Our sincere apologies. We just hate it. We had an awesome show in the works. CJ Rayburn had his car in the house. Full field in every class. It was gonna be a stellar event.”
“It’s humbling to see your support of Lake Cumberland Speedway. We’re gonna make this right. See you next Friday night.”
3 night light poles were installed at Lake Cumberland Speedway by Monday afternoon. A next catch fence is currently under construction as well and will be put into place before Friday night’s show.
Race car climbs the fence at Lake Cumberland Speedway
Lake Cumberland Speedway officials discuss the race car climbing the catch fence
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Related: Kyle Larson crashes into the catch fence at Daytona (Video)
