ADAMS COUNTY, Pa. — It doesn’t take a huge flip or accident to take you out of the drivers seat. One driver, saw it first hand but rebounds with a win.
On any giving Saturday, you would typically find Billy Dietrich racing 410 sprint cars at Lincoln Speedway.
“Getting in the car and racing, it’s like a natural habitat, almost. You take a deer out of the woods. It’s not in it’s natural habitat. You take us (Dietrich’s) out of a race car, it’s kind of the same thing," said Billy Dietrich, driver of the No. 8 410 sprint car.
Especially when the Dietrich's have been around racing their entire lives, but a weekend in June, racing at Lincoln, took Billy's season for a loop.
Dietrich said, “A big chunk of mud actually came right through the right side of the car, here and caught my leg. At the time, I thought my leg was broke."
Thankfully, his leg wasn't broken and needed just a little more than a week off to rest up. But, when he hit the track again, the cards fall into place, winning at Clinton County.
“Icing on the cake to come back, be competitive right away and win for Phil and to come back and win like that was pretty cool," Dietrich said.
After the win, he has another set back. His retina detached from his eye. Two freak incidents just weeks apart. No driver ever wants to think about life without racing but for Dietrich, it wouldn’t change anything his doing.
“No regrets on my end. I’d be happy. Of course, I’d still be involved because it’s what we do," said Dietrich.
Recovery was a lot faster than he ever expected. Thinking he'd be out for the rest of the season, it took just 10-days to recover from his eye surgery.
“I was excited to get back but a little cautious until the doctor said I was good.”
On the track, the mayor Dylan Cisney captured all the cheese in Wisconsin. He won the feature at Dodge County.
Friday night, the night before the National Open at Selinsgrove. Daryn Pittman jumped back into Heffner's No. 27 and wired the field to win his first feature at the track since 2012.
At the 40th National Open, first double-race weekend for the Natty Open since 1992. Danny Dietrich on the pole. He led the first half a dozen laps until Anthony Macri pulled the slider to lead lap seven.
Then, 17 laps down, Dietrich returned the favor but Macri would carry more speed into three and regained the lead.
The concrete kid three-peats and wins his third consecutive National Open title at Selinsgrove.