TUESDAY Night Febuary 5 2008 East Bay Winternationals

Korte sitting out with back injury

Driver Randy Korte of Highland, Ill., had a bit of a scare during one of the early scrambles at Monday's opening feature at East Bay Raceway Park's Winternationals.

"It wasn't the worst wreck I've ever been in," said the 42-year-old Korte, "but it's the worst as far as pain."

Korte's back suffered a serious blow when, after a collision with Vic Coffey that bounced Korte's Riggs Motorsports entry into the air on the frontstretch, the car slammed back to the track.

"When I came down, it just knocked the breath out of me," said Korte, who said he didn't begin breathing normally until being given oxygen during his ambulance ride to the hospital. "I've never felt like that in my life."
Korte rolled to a stop near the turn-one exit and was attended by ambulance personnel before they put him on a stretcher and took him to Tampa General Hospital. He stayed there overnight wearing a neck brace and undergoing a CAT scan, and left about 7 a.m. with the diagnosis of a sprained and bruised back.

On Tuesday afternoon at East Bay, Korte was relaxing in a hauler with Scott Riggs (who owns the car Korte drove Monday) and Gary Gerstner (who owns the car Korte plans to drive later in the week). Korte is able to stand and walk briefly, but painful back spasms force him back to sitting, and he's been taking pain medication to ease his back. He plans on sitting out Tuesday's action.

Gerstner, who went to the hospital with Korte, asked him if he wanted to skip the rest of the week and head back to Illinois. "Naw buddy," Korte told him. "I'll be OK. We'll get things going."

Elliott among newcomers

Ricky Elliott of Seaford, Del., plans to enter Tuesday's action at East Bay driving the No. 9 Wild Chassis that Dan Schlieper drove to a third-place finish Feb. 1 at Golden Isles Speedway's Super Bowl of Racing.
Schlieper is committed to running his Rayburn Race Car at East Bay, so Wild Chassis founder Kevin Katzenberg is putting Elliott in the car. Elliott hot-lapped the car briefly at East Bay and Katzenberg swapped steering racks for Elliott's comfort. "He's used to all that East Coast modified stuff and their fast racks," Katzenberg said.

Other newcomers on Tuesday are Mark Andersen of Blanchard, Mich., who flipped his car in his last start at Golden Isles. Josh McGuire of Ashland, Ky., was at East Bay on Monday night but engine problems kept him out of action; he's ready to go Tuesday after a delivery of parts from his engine builder.

Earl Pearson Jr.'s car was unloaded so crew members Keith and Randall Edwards could work on it, but Keith said the team won't race until Wednesday.

More carnage at East Bay

Walking through the pits last night, observers heard the standard East Bay drumbeat: Bang! Bang! Bang! Crew members banged out sheet metal and removed panels from cars to make repairs after a night where there was plenty of beating and banging on the third-mile oval.

"Hopefully everyone will calm down tonight," said Kevin Cole of Buckner, Ill., who debuted a new car that didn't look exactly new after a night at East Bay. "That's what you get when you get a bunch of guys used to winning" with few transfer spots in heat races.

Chris Wall of Holden, La., missed the feature event with engine problems, but he wasn't too sad about missing the six caution flags in the first nine laps of the main event. "Hopefully everybody got that out of their blood last night," Wall said.

Odds and ends

After finishing fifth in a Monday night heat race, Tim Fuller's team discovered a broken valve spring and scratched for the rest of the night. The team, led by crew chief Smoke, swapped engines on Monday night and plan to race Tuesday. ...

Chris Wall of Holden, La., also had engine problems Monday when an intake bolt backed out, allowing water into the engine. He swapped engines (an identical 430 c.i. powerplant) late Monday night and plans to run Tuesday. ...

Wayne Chinn's team also swapped motors, but not because of any problems. "We just didn't have enough ponies," said Jim Chinn, team owner and Wayne's father. The pulled out a 400 c.i. steel block engine and went with a 433 c.i. aluminum block.