Sean Gipson, who picked up his first victory at Berlin Raceway in 17 years when he took a win in a limited late model event at the 0.4375-mile short track last June, had a wild excursion during qualifying for Wednesday evening's UARA National Series Battle at Berlin 250.
Heading through Turns 1 and 2 on the second lap of his qualifying run, Gipson's car drifted high on the track, and as he was approaching the outer edge of the racing surface, a plum of smoke flowed from under his No. 45 machine.
Try as he might, Gipson was unable to stop his car from colliding with the tires, which are placed for safety in front of the outside wall on the backstretch of the track. After colliding with the tires, Gipson would skid out of the confines of the race track, and would slam into a set of concrete barriers outside of Turn 2.
Here is a video of Gipson's wild qualifying crash:
After climbing from his car and walking back to the infield of the track, Gipson explained that he felt the issue he encountered was a stuck throttle in Turn 2.
"Yeah, just coming out of [Turn] two there, we had a good lap on the first one, but I think a pin came off the throttle there, and just stuck wide open," Gipson stated. "Tried to push the clutch in to save it, but it was already up in the marbles. Sucked it right to the tires. It looked like a hard hit, but it was really fine."
Gipson reiterated that despite the crash appearing serious in nature, he felt fine after climbing from the carnage.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Everything's good. The cars not," Gipson quipped.
Due to the crash, Gipson was forced to withdraw from the event. The Michigan native had recorded the 14th-fastest lap in the 31-car field in the qualifying session prior to the accident.
Photo Credit: Koty Geyer
