Bryan Clauson: The Instantaneous Cruelty of Racing

On Sunday, August 7, Bryan Clauson, an Indiana native and a grassroots dirt-track racer who made it to the Indy 500 and who in 2016 set a personal goal of competing in 200 races, succumbed to injuries suffered in a vicious crash during the running of the 39th annual Belleville Midget Nationals in Belleville, Kansas, the previous evening.

A Dog and a driver

Clauson was in his 116th start of the planned 200-race season, a season taking place at speedways literally coast-to-coast.  He had won 27 of the races so far, the most recent having been another Midget race in Beloit, Kansas, the prior Wednesday.

At Belleville, where Clauson had won three times previously including the 2015 event, he started the race in ninth position and had taken the lead when on the 14th of 40 scheduled laps his car clipped the guard rail between Turns 3 and 4 and flipped wildly.  In a hard-to-watch turn of events, Clauson’s car was struck in the top of the driver’s cockpit by the car of Pennsylvanian Ryan Greth while Greth was still at speed.

Speed is always a factor at the track, named the Belleville High Banks, because the half-mile dirt oval located some 200 miles northwest of Kansas City is one of the fastest tracks on which Midget cars race.

Had Clauson won the race, a payday of $12,500 would have awaited him.  Instead, the safety crew took great care to extract Clauson from the tight confines of the car and placed him in a helicopter to be airlifted from the rural speedway to a medical facility in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he died.  He was 27.

Clauson had won four United States Auto Club (USAC) championships, two in the Midget cars and two in the larger Sprint cars.  He has also competed in three Indy 500s, in 2012, 2015, and this year.  USAC issued a statement reading in part, “Not only have we lost one of our greatest USAC Champions, we have lost a true ambassador for all of motorsports. Bryan’s passion for our sport was unparalleled. He was a leader not only on the track, but in the pits with his fellow competitors. There is a tremendous hole in the hearts of our community today as we grieve his loss along with his family and friends.”

The annual Belleville Midget Nationals is one of the most prestigious events on the dirt-track racing calendar, and previous winners include Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, and Kyle Larsen.

Racing, it has often been said, offers the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.  In this instance, both came within moments of each other, as Clauson took over the lead of the race and then suffered the devastating crash that claimed his life.  There is no underestimating the effect this is having throughout the racing community, because Clauson was a loved and respected racer whose 2016 quest to compete in 200 races had galvanized fans across the country.

Photo by Sarah Stierch