Thursday, July 04, 2002
Figure 8 races end to honor late driver
By Dustin Dow
The Cincinnati Enquirer
To honor the driver killed at Florence Speedway last weekend, owner Jerry King has canceled racing on the figure-eight track for the remainder of the season.
“It would just be too hard to go on,” Mr. King said.
Denny Kleier, 40, of Florence, was killed in the intersection of a figure-eight race Saturday when another car struck his driver-side door. The impact killed Mr. Kleier immediately, said Boone County Coroner Douglas Stith, severing the brain stem — the point where the spinal cord enters the brain.
Accidents are a common part of racing on this type of track. Cars often enter the intersection simultaneously at 30-40 mph.
Part of the excitement, Mr. King said, is seeing accidents and near-misses in the intersection. Usually, he said, the accidents result in spin-outs.
This was the first death in an accident at Florence Speedway since it opened in 1953, according to Mr. King, who bought the facility in 1984 when it was just a half-mile oval dirt track. In 1995, he added a figure-eight track after seeing one at Louisville Speedway.
Another driver, Dave Robertson, died June 1 of a heart
attack during a race on the oval.
The cars at Florence are pure stock cars, based on a model of a street car. Most of the drivers are local.
Mr. King will not cancel the other regular Saturday night races, which run on the oval. He said safety was not an issue in canceling the figure-eight race.
“Regardless of any safety requirements, there's nothing that would have saved Denny,” Mr. King said. “There is absolutely nothing we could have done.”
The speedway requires each figure-eight car to have a roll cage inside the car that protects the driver during a crash. Each car also must be equipped with racing-style seats and seat belts, and all drivers must wear helmets.
Mr. Stith said the injury was similar the one the killed NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt in January 2001. The difference, the coroner said, is that Mr. Earnhardt suffered head-on trauma while Mr. Kleier was hit with “blunt force trauma from the side.”
Many NASCAR drivers began wearing head and neck restraints after Mr. Earnhardt's death, but Mr. King said he doesn't know of any tracks the size of Florence that require the restraints because of the cost. Mr. Stith said he could not say for sure if a head and neck restraint would have saved Mr. Kleier.
The figure-eight drivers who regularly race at Florence voted to end the season with Mr. Kleier leading the points race. The season, which began April 6, was originally scheduled to extend until Aug. 22 with seven races left.
“That was fine with me,” Mr. King said Wednesday, “because I had already decided to end it.”
Terry Fannin of Lebanon was driving the car that crashed into Mr. Kleier's, according to Mr. King, and both were traveling at the average 30-40 mph. Mr. Fannin was not seriously injured, but was air-lifted to a hospital and later released.
“It was one of those freak things that you can't prevent,” Mr. King said. “It's really hard on everyone here because we were all like a family.”
Mr. Kleier was one of the more popular racers at Florence Speedway. Five figure-eight drivers served as pallbearers during Mr. Kleier's funeral Wednesday at St. Stephen's Cemetery in Fort Thomas. Mr. Kleier was engaged to be married.
“The two deaths have really destroyed us around here,” Mr. King said. “Two of the nicest guys you've ever met. Dave was here when I bought this track. It's hard.'
Mr. Kleier often recruited drivers from other racetracks to Florence. He knew that if 15 showed up for a race, the winner's payout would reach $500.
“Denny was constantly trying to get that 15th car out there,” Mr. King said. “He was one of the guys who really loved it. I talked to his mother, and she said he died doing what he loved.”
“This is not a thing where they make money,” Mr. King said. “The drivers are doing it for their own pleasure. Figure eight is not a thing that everybody's capable of doing.”
Billy Gibson, a figure-eight driver who raced against Mr. Kleier, said the death makes him think about whether he wants to race figure eights again, given the inevitability of accidents. Mr. Gibson said he definitely was not going to race figure eights again this season, although he would consider the oval.
“It makes all of us think about it,” Mr. Gibson said. “But it could happen on an oval track, too.”
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Figure 8 races end to honor late driver
