******************* aug 5th 1983 9pm************************

parental advisory is needed in this story

there was a near tragedy, a near miss.... lot of people hurt.... the dream, but the people that were there would never forget it

the big block modifieds took the green at stafford motor speedway which was the manchester oil heat 100, by lap 6 the cars were spreading out and it looked like it was going to turn out to be a good race......lap 7 the cars where in 3 distinct packs.... but on lap 8, some peoples lives would change when corky cookman hooked wheels with another car and preceded to start to barrel roll...... as a 6 year old child, the last thing i remember the big 04 on the roof and me being thrown in between the rows of stands,.i laided there for 25 secs apporx, later on i was told that corkys radiator blew as soon as he hit the catchfence during that time i heard the motors were automatically killled and there was a deafening silence then i heard crying, panic, bedlam, you can guess the rest of this.... by the time i was helped up, what i seen shocked me, a gapping hole in the catchfence, a bent up guardrail and a mangled rail post that seperated the grass and the walkway that sepertated that to the stands... the ironic thing that occered was that ive been there in that section, and never people sitting on that walkway because this event,they really packed them in there, just about every EMT/ambulence from the tolland county was there at the scene, just like everyone in our section, we gave up our blankets for the people that needed them..... looking back at that night, i still dont remember corky cookmans car in the stands<memoery block> and mike horents car behind his<how it got there i dont know because i never saw it go over the wall..... as we were heading back to the car, my dad looks at me and says "scott are you ok?????" at that time i could not even speak but i gave a nod that i was, we pulled in our driveway and went to our house and to our surpise my mother stood up late<11:30> and started to cry and said thank god you guys are ok, she watched the news and she also knew that this is where we usually sat, any mother or parent period would be pulling there hair by the roots seeing this unfold on tv<channel 3 news> my father told my mother that he had give up his blanket for the people, and this blanket was given to my mother as a gift from my uncle who served in the marines whille being stationed in mexico... my mother was just thankfull about us comming back in 1 peice and she totally forgot about the blanket and still to this day she could have cared less about it...

*************************aug 6th approx 9:00am****************

as my parents waited for the newspapers to be shipped to there cars<they delivered them for many years>.... when the truck finally came, there it was...... " 33 hurt 1 seroius" on the front page, needless to say we kept a few copys of that paper... in that edtion, there was another sports story featured "1st round draft pick JOHN ELWAY goes to training camp" we were still in shock still about that picture and my father points out"we were right there" and pointed to the left side of the picture which it turns out that we were only 35 feet from where the car landed.... the next friday went by as rain cancelled the next weeks races including the makeup for the 5th.. the next friday came and i was playing "racetrack" on a track that my father made for me using black countertop for pavement, green towel stapled for grass<infield> and white rubberish material for the walls which he gave to me the xmas before, and he comes and asks

dad "do you want to go to stafford tonight???"

me "i dont think its a good idea"

he walks out....... then talks to my mother and says

dad "i dont think scott wants to go to the races anymore"

mom "nooooooooooo why, do you think the accident stook him up to the point of not wanting to go anymore?????"

dad " i think so, i really dont want to go either but this has never happened in my 25 years of watching races, maybe i should talk to scott about it,"

he comes back in to my room.... asks me to take a seat on the bed, and he says

"you know scott, i am scared as much as you are, but we have to understand that this is a once in a lifetime deal, in my 25 years of going to races, this NEVER happened before and probally would never happen again......" which he was right

me "ok ill make a deal with you.....if we go tonight, we DONT sit in turn 4, we sit near turn 1????"

dad "ok we will sit near turn 1 "

we got there and saw the makeup race i dont remember who won it but we sat in that same spot in turn 1 for the next 14 years, everytime we went there for a show, we never thought about sitting there again in turn 4"

**************************fall final 1998**********************

on the saturday portion of the program i had the urge to get rid of the fear of sitting in turn 4 so i walked up the bleachers and for some unknown reason, i started to shake as im walking... i stopped, looked around and went up a few more rows,

stranger sitting down "MR, are you ok?????? "

me "yes"

i walked up a more rows and sat down at the top, another person 2 rows down came up to me and sat down next to me.......

stranger " where you here on the 5th of aug in 1983????? "

me "yes i was, did i look that bad going up the stairs???"

stranger " no but i figured something was going on when you looked behind yourself"

me and this gentelmen carried on a conversion for about 15 mins and as it turns out, he was sitting roughy 40 feet from the car<on the right side, i was on the left> and he was 12 years old at that time, i told him that i did not remember the car being there, and he said neather did he but probally alot of people were shocked enough that they dont remember the car in the stands, maybe i was not alone ,

*******************the dream******************************

what made me think about doing this true story was inspired on a dream that i had last month, and what i seen on the MSS board, that is what created the spark about me doing this story, the dream on the other hand was about being at stafford that night and bascially re-living the accident but it did appear that i was on that top row looking down and watching the 04 hit the catchfence, hitting the railing then kanding in the stands, people where there like it was on that night in question, weridest part was that from looking at the newspaper and when i was 10, i walked over to that section and visioned how that car was postioned when it landed in the stands, maybe that is how i dreamed that the car landed in the same fashion as it happened<front of the car was aimed toward the top row, slightly angled> reguardless of this dream, i woke up screaming, but after about 10-15 mins i calmed down to the point of saying "this might be an idea" or "if i would post it somewhere, would it be sentitive to people reading it?????" this is why i put the parental advisory is needed because if it is bad for the younger ones to see, i really prefer if they would not read it untill they understand fully on what happened<dont want to scare them away from racetracks> but 22 years is way to long to hold things back and just think, how far has nascar<even though sometimes i am not always pro nascar> come along with all of these safety advances such as cables,poles every 4-5 feet to keep the cars on the track and away from ballpark/grandstands, even the hans device... this sport has really come along in a big way since then, thanks for reading

scott