Aydan Bailey, the son of drag-and-drive star and promoter of the very “Sick Week” event he was competing in last week, Tom Bailey, was unhurt in a high-speed rollover crash on the final day of competition Friday at the Bradenton Motorsports Park.
The 18-year-old Bailey, driving the familiar “Sh**box of Doom” Chevy 210 wagon made famous years ago by NHRA stars Richie Crampton and Jonnie Lindberg, had clicked off a series of 8-second runs in the preceding days, including a best of 8.25 at 264 mph in Adel, Georgia, and had just recorded a week-best 8.20-second elapsed time when his patina’ed wagon hooked right at the 1/4-mile stripe and turned onto its roof. Thankfully, after a couple of tense moments for Tom and all involved, Aydan climbed from the car with only harm to his pride.
“Sh*t happens and the car did its job…thank you [chassis builder] Richie Crampton for that! [Aydan] was way out of the groove and should have gotten out of it,” Tom shared in a social media post regarding the cause of the incident. “After I confirmed he was unharmed I told him he screwed up, however, that car doesn’t have enough horsepower to still be pulling hard at that point in the track. And being out of the groove should have sent him left into the wall first not shot him to the right. There is video of a puff of smoke on the passenger side before it shot right, so it might have lifted the head. We will see on teardown, and yes you need to look into everything to learn. But I have gone from saying driver error to maybe something else happened. It will be a few weeks before we dig into it further but will be open and honest with our findings so everyone can learn, but either way let this be a reminder to overbuild your race car just in case. Maybe he set the record for the fastest wagon on its roof ever.”
Aydan, fresh out of high school last year, immediately began following in his father’s footsteps, completing Rocky Mountain Race Week last summer in the new-to-him wagon with its twin-turbo, iron block LS engine combination. Tom and Aydan are already in search of a new wagon body to rebuild the existing car or start fresh with a similar build, and we’d expect to see the younger Bailey back on the proverbial horse and enjoying success, just as his father would, sooner rather than later.