Forgettable Racing Stories

[Johnny Gray]

Got finished racing on a Sunday at Englishtown one year and was leaving to make the quick 5 hour ride home. Got onto the Garden State Parkway and had my first flat with my open trailer. Pulled off to change it and wouldn't you know, the spare rim had the wrong bolt pattern. Drove around central NJ on 3 trailer tires for over an hour looking for a gas station that was open that could swap the good tire onto the rim that had the flat tire and the right bolt pattern. Finally got that fixed and we were on our way. Almost made it into Massachusetts when I was traveling down the center lane of Rt. 84 and a moving van in the fast lane passed me and then decided he wanted to take the next exit and he must not have seen that I had a trailer because when he pulled right, he went right into the drivers side of my trailer flattening both tires and took the trailer fender off. Lucky for me, when CT Trooper Peasley showed up, he was not too happy with the non-english speaking driver of the moving van and wrote him up for everything he could. Trooper Peasley asked me several times to make sure there was no damage on the racecar that he could include in the police report. Thankfully, there was no damage to the racecar or truck. Trooper Peasley called the tow truck and I ended up paying about $200 for two used tires to get us home. Our quick 5 hour trip turned into a long 10 hour trip.