From Crash to Comeback: John Peters’ Journey Back to the Top
Written By: Amy Harrop
August 22, 2017
Sunday, July 30th wasn’t the average race day for Westbrook’s John Peters, driver of the #51 Runtal Radiators Pro Stock car. The John Peters Motorsports team loaded up their car and headed to Wiscasset Speedway for the Boss Hogg 150, an 150-lap Pro Stock race at the 3/8 mile oval located 1 hour North of Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Peters’ usual stomping grounds on the weekend. Being a past victor at Wiscasset, Peters was excited to make another appearance at the racetrack. By the end of the day, excitement turned into frustration for Peters and the entire #51 team as the day took a highly unexpected turn for the worse.
It wasn’t long into the race before the #51 team suffered from a twisted form of fate. From his point of view, John says that he was having a good race, making his way up to third early and trying to track down the leaders. He calls what happened next “a racing deal”, recounting the events that took place. “I came out of turn 2, which is a full throttle spot at Wiscasset. The second place car had just spun going into turn 3. It looked like I had room to avoid him high, so I backed off and committed to the top. Not a split second later, his car rolled up the track, so I hit the brakes and cut the wheels left. I got the car pointed towards the bottom but it started to slide and I just couldn’t get low enough. My right side door caught his left front, which ripped everything out of the right rear, spun me around and launched me into the wall. It happened really fast,” he recounts. Peters’ said that he immediately knew the wreck was major, saying that he saw his rear end tube, wheel, tire and brakes go flying down the track. John’s Dad Greg Peters also knew that it was a vicious wreck, saying, “Our first thoughts were “Is he okay?”. He told us on the radio that he was okay, so then the frustration kicked in.” From just looking at the aftermath of the wreck, he also knew that the car was totalled.