Justin Wolf Medlock: Casper & Rock Springs, WY

This trip was full of many majestic sunrises and sunsets. Gorgeous!
When we first got to Casper, the track promoter had asked for volunteers to display their cars throughout Casper to stir up interest and bring the fans to the track. We thought this was important for the racing series so agreed and they set us up at a busy intersection in front of one of the sponsor’s businesses.

We passed out flyers and gave away some free tickets. It was fun to talk with some of the fans about the sport, the car and how we got into racing. Many people driving by honked and screamed their racing excitement.

Afterwards, we packed up and headed to the track to set up. Casper Speedway is a half mile track which is the biggest track that we had raced yet. Lots of passing room and long straight-aways which mean super high speeds.

Justin finished 4th in his qualifying heat so he started 16th in the A main. These guys were FLYING around the track and many drivers were wrecking and breaking. Our friend Chad, during his heat, jumped the cushion, rolled twice and flipped over the wall! He walked away from the crash but his car was destroyed and he was done for the weekend.

In our main event, Justin was doing so awesome, moving from 16th place to 6th and gaining! He was even avoiding other wrecks and hanging with the front pack. Then 2 crashes happened in front of him and he had nowhere to go. Hank and I jumped in the Yukon and tore out onto the track to the jumbled cars. Justin yelled at me to run back and find a tire from someone. So I ran all the way across the big track, jumped the fence and asked Todd if we could borrow a tire and wheel. He ran to his pit car, unloaded the wheel and jack while we waited for Justin to be pushed off track. Several guys came over to help remove the back smooshed tire. It took 3 guys to pry the metal off the spine to get to the lug and remove the tire. We were freaking out trying to get it off in time before deadline of the next lap completed. These guys were so great and so helpful but once the tire was off, they noticed that there was a lot more damage that was not fixable at the moment. Bummer!

The back right wheel and tire were completely destroyed and bent beyond recognition. Smashed wheel and wing.

He was out for that race but was able to try the next day in Rock Springs. They were able to piece the car back together for the next race. Justin just finished 11th on the last lap of the race just as the car died and had to be pushed off track. We thought that we had blown the entire engine and were really worried. But after we got home, we found that the magneto in the engine was broken.

We now know that it was strong angels that protected him and held his car together. After taking the car apart to find out how much damage was done, we were in complete shock. Our first reaction during this weekend was frustration and upset because we were so close to finishing in the top 5 only to be stopped and broken. But the more we looked into the car, the more we found. 3 of the 4 gas tank mounts were completely broken, the bird cage mounts were cracked, the wing holders cracked plus the wing itself had been taped together by Justin's dad to get us through and much more.