DUQUOIN, Ill. – Karsyn Elledge was thankful to have walked away unhurt after a frightening-looking incident during the C main of Saturday night’s Shamrock Classic inside the Southern Illinois Center.
After spinning from the race lead with three to go, Elledge was fighting to try and get back to a transfer spot on the restart when she ramped over the right-rear tire of another car and went airborne.
Elledge got as high as the top edge of the catchfence before plummeting back down and coming to rest in the crossover gate between turns one and two, nearly where Kevin Thomas Jr. hit in December.
After her car was towed away from the scene, Elledge quickly hopped out and made her way back to the Tucker-Boat Motorsports trailer, with nothing to show for her efforts after showing speed early on.
“For starters, I’m pretty upset with myself that I even put myself in the C main and in that position to begin with,” Elledge told SPEED SPORT. “We spun from the lead, just another stupid mistake. That put me in the back and when I go to the back, I get a little fire under me and sometimes overdrive.
“That’s exactly what happened there. I jumped a guy’s right rear and from there, it was dirt, sky, dirt, sky,” Elledge added. “It sucks and I’m pretty disappointed in myself, but it happens to everyone at some point.”
Elledge was relegated to the C main after clipping the inside curb in turns three and four in her heat race, running third at the time and in position to make the qualifiers on passing points.
While that wasn’t what caused her later issues, it was still a talking point for Elledge afterward.
“I didn’t even hit the berm in the C; it was only in the heat race that I hit it, but in the C (main), I just drove in a little too hard, not in the moisture, and got back in the gas where it just didn’t work,” Elledge explained. “That berm is really tricky, though. It’s really tall … super tall, and you can’t even really touch it without having something unfortunate happen.
“I would be in the vote for it to be a little shorter when we come back here in December.”
Elledge made sure to note that she was “A-OK” after coming out from the trailer to speak with SPEED SPORT, aside from her dejection at a possibly-strong night gone wrong.
“We had a fast car, we really did,” she said. “It’s just unfortunate that we were buried like that. Little mistakes can hit you hard here, and they certainly got us tonight.
“I’m OK, just bummed out that we wrecked a race car.”