Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Road rage

Found a bizarre story on the wire about a race car driver with a severe case of road rage. According to The Associated Press, a driver at Challenger Raceway in Indiana County, Pa., became angry after a fellow racer spun him out near the end of one of the feature events Saturday night. Rather than getting out of his car and having a few words with the other driver, he drove in the wrong direction on the track and crashed into the other car. That sent the two cars careening into a 42-year-old track official. The official, Michael Polena, was taken to a Pittsburgh hospital with a dislocated left knee, torn ligaments and a bruised lung. Now state police are preparing to file charges against the driver, who investigators declined to identify.

This is one of the most bizarre racing stories I've ever read, although it reminds me of my younger video gaming days when I'd play NASCAR Racing 2 on my home computer. Sure, I'd spin my car around and drive more than 200 mph the wrong way at Talladega. It'd create quite a spectacular crash - mostly aimed at Jeff Gordon - but at least no one got hurt. However, this short-tracking idiot from Indiana County must never be allowed to set foot inside a race track again. Racing is dangerous enough without this joker on the track. The consequences are too severe for this type of stupidity.

3 comments:

Yvonne said...

I work with Mike. He's doing all right and in good spirits. Thanks for your post; hopefully, lessons will be learned from this experience.

MJ said...

Glad to hear he's doing OK, Yvonne. The AP story didn't mention his condition, so that was a concern. Hopefully he'll be back on his feet and back at the track soon. By the way, do you have any updates on the driver who hit him or the state police investigation?

Scott said...

Really, it's not like bending your golf club after a bad round. Sounds like there is more to this story, though.....