Eldora Speedway
Clint Smith's wreck leaves him with broken wrist
By Kevin Kovac
UMP DIRTcar Racing
Clint Smith
Clint Smith’s slap of the wall in a heat race for Saturday's 38th annual World 100 at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, was worse than just a wreck that kept him out of the feature event. The Senoia, Ga., driver also ended up with a broken bone in his right wrist.
“I got the right-rear in the fence and then the right-front caught and snatched the steering wheel out of my hand,” said Smith. “I knew I hurt my wrist as soon as I came to a stop.”
Smith had his injury checked out by Eldora’s safety team inside the ambulance stationed in the pit area, but he refused to visit a hospital for further evaluation. He wrapped his hand with an Ace bandage and drove home to seek further medical attention.
On Monday afternoon, X-rays found that Smith snapped a bone in his wrist. He was fitted with a cast that stretches to just below his elbow. Smith, 43, said doctors estimate it will take 10 weeks for his wrist to fully heal, but he plans to continue racing to the best of his ability beginning with this weekend’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series trip to Missouri and Illinois.
Also caught up in Smith's accident was Chub Frank of Bear Lake, Pa., who was involved in a heat-race accident that ended his World 100 hopes prematurely for the second straight year. Confident after timing sixth-fastest among 175 cars, Frank was attempting to race forward from the sixth starting spot on the third lap of Saturday’s sixth heat race when he hit the stricken car driven by fellow WoO LMS regular Clint Smith of Senoia, Ga., who bounced off the wall between turns one and two.
“Clint just caught the wall with the right-rear and it sucked his right-front in,” said Frank, who won the World 100 in 2004. “When his right-front hit it pretty much stopped him, and then the ass-end of his car came out and I clipped him going by. I just caught him with my right-rear. It ripped the rear deck out and probably made the crash look pretty spectacular, but it didn’t really hurt nothing. It was all tin. The suspension was fine.”
