Tony Bischoff is a lucky man and Gary White can testify to the fact.

The ADRL Extreme 10.5 racers barely avoided what could have been one of the worst crashes in ADRL history. White's quick thinking and reaction helped him avoid an out of control Bischoff during the third qualifying session at the ADRL Gateway Drags in St. Louis.

Bischoff’s car had suffered handling problems in the earlier second session but he managed to corral the car back into his lane. In the run alongside White, his car rode the centerline early in the pass and  eventually he lost control, sending the car into a series of barrel rolls.

Tony Bischoff is a lucky man and Gary White can testify to the fact.

The ADRL Extreme 10.5 racers barely avoided what could have been one of the worst crashes in ADRL history. White's quick thinking and reaction helped him avoid an out of control Bischoff during the third qualifying session at the ADRL Gateway Drags in St. Louis.

Bischoff’s car had suffered handling problems in the earlier second session but he managed to corral the car back into his lane. In the run alongside White, his car rode the centerline early in the pass and  eventually he lost control, sending the car into a series of barrel rolls.

White successful evaded Bischoff but not before suffering some cosmetic damage to his Toyota when he scraped the retaining wall. He barely avoided hitting the underneath of Bischoff’s car.

“I’m fine,” Bischoff said, after climbing from his wrecked race car. “My pride’s hurt. My wallet’s hurt. But the good Lord protected me today.”

Bischoff told CompetitionPlus.com that the car “hadn’t been handling good for a while” and that he shouldn't have been driving it. The overwhelming desire to get into the sixteen car field is what pushed him to make the qualifying attempt.

“I pushed it a little harder than I should have on the back half of the race track,” Bischoff confided. “I got out of the groove when I let off and it got away from me.”

White had endured a good news, bad news scenarios after Friday’s single qualifying session. He pushed his Inline 6-powered Toyota Scion to the top spot in qualifying with a 4.063 elapsed time 176.28, but the engine suffered serious damage during the run.

The team sat out Saturday’s first session but had the damage repaired in time for the final.

“We wanted to run to the 330 to make sure this engine was okay,” White explained. “I clicked the car off three seconds into the run. I could hear Tony coming and he wasn’t in the show. I heard him coming by me and I thought he was on a good pass. He came by in front of me and just missed my car. His car was already up on its side and floating.”

If not for quick thinking and experience White might have been involved in a full-fledged two-car crash.

“I pumped the brakes a few times,” White continued. “I wanted to try and keep from running into the underneath of his car in case his tires dug in.”

White said his car swapped sides of the lane and rubbed the wall during his evasive action.

“We suffered just a little cosmetic damage -- nothing bad,” White said. “The rear tapped the wall just a touch but it is fine. There’s no suspension damage so we’ll be good to go.”

The same can’t be said for Bischoff’s 2002 Cougar after a quick visual inspection from the owner.

“I really don’t know how bad it is and if it can even be fixed,” Bischoff said. “We’ll talk to the original chassis builder Jerry Haas and see what it will take to get the car fixed. If it’s not fixable we’ll just take it apart and part it out.”

Bischoff and White said there are no hard feelings following the accident.

“I felt bad about the whole deal and he told me he was glad that no one got hurt in the accident,” Bischoff explained. “He’s here to race another day and so am I so it’s a good day.” 
 

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