By Kevin Kovac, P.R. Director
World of Outlaws Late Model Series

TULSA, OK - January 15, 2009 - Former World of Outlaws Late Model Series champion and longtime Advance Auto Parts Super DIRTcar Modified Series competitor Tim McCreadie suffered a back injury in a wild crash Wednesday night during the 23rd annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Midget Nationals at Tulsa Expo Raceway.

McCreadie, 34, of Watertown, N.Y., was found to have a fractured T-3 vertebra and floating bone fragments in his back after flipping over the turn-one fence of the indoor one-fifth-mile dirt track while leading the night's first 'A' qualifier. The rearend of McCreadie's Midget broke right-of-center as he set the car into the first corner, sending him into a high-flying series of flips that ended with his machine landing upside down on a parked Bobcat vehicle and then falling to the concrete floor on its frame rails.

A winner of the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in 2006 - the same year he captured the WoO LMS title - McCreadie was driving a Midget from the powerful Wilke-Pak Motorsports stable. His teammates for the event included USAC stars Dave Darland and Jerry Coons Jr. and WoO Sprint Car standout Terry McCarl.

The accident abruptly ended a week that had started well for McCreadie, who was making his fifth appearance at the mid-winter classic. He battled WoO Sprint Car Series veteran Sammy Swindell for the lead in Tuesday night's Chili Bowl Race of Champions before settling for a third-place finish and he won the third heat race on Wednesday night.

McCreadie was recuperating on Thursday afternoon in a Tulsa hospital. His close friend, USAC's James Spink, accompanied McCreadie to the hospital and reported that the superstar driver was "extremely sore" but otherwise in good spirits.

A local specialist who examined McCreadie said he did not think the bone fragments are an issue and surgery likely won't be necessary, but USAC's Jason Smith contacted Dr. Terry Trammell, the renowned Indianapolis-based Orthopedic Surgeon who has helped many injured drivers over the years, for a second opinion. Trammell was expected to review an MRI of McCreadie's back and talk with doctors in Tulsa late Thursday afternoon.

McCreadie is expected to make a full recovery, but the length of time he'll be sidelined from competition is uncertain. He was looking forward to a busy stretch of racing in Georgia and Florida over the coming weeks with his Sweeteners Plus dirt Late Model team, including the Alltel DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., that features UMP DIRTcar Super Late Model events on Feb.
9, 10, 11 and 13 and WoO LMS shows on Feb. 12 and 14.

WoO Sprint Car regular Lucas Wolfe of Mechanicsburg, Pa., suffered a back injury similar to McCreadie's last year, fracturing his T-4 vertebra in a crash on June 8 at Tri-City Speedway in Pontoon Beach, Ill. He was sidelined for two months, returning to the cockpit on Aug. 8.

McCreadie is a fulltime professional short-track racer and has no health insurance, so Spink, Smith and Kevin Miller from USAC have moved quickly to help manage many offers from the racing community to assist with his medical and recovery expenses.
Donations can made to the Tim McCreadie Support Fund c/o USAC, 4910 West 16th St., Speedway, IN, 46224. A donation link will also be added to McCreadie's website at www.timmccreadie.com.

Brian Carter, the World Racing Group CEO who also is competing in the Chili Bowl, saw McCreadie's accident.

"It seemed to be a random breakage of the car," said Carter, who directs the company that oversees the World of Outlaws. "Having seen the crash firsthand, I'm glad it sounds like Tim should recover. The most important thing right now is for people to help Tim by contributing to the fund set up to assist in his recovery."

McCreadie's injury comes almost 20 years after his father, legendary DIRTcar big-block Modified driver 'Barefoot' Bob McCreadie, suffered the first of his five back injuries. On May 22, 1988, Bob McCreadie, then 37, went over the turn-two banking at Cayuga County Fair Speedway in Weedsport, N.Y., with his familiar No. 9 big-block Modified and landed hard, breaking the T-4, T-5 and T-6 vertebra in his thoracic spine.

Bob McCreadie, who turns 58 on Jan. 19, underwent back surgery, spent two weeks in the hospital and sat out much of the 1988 racing season following the injury. He returned to enjoy some of the best years of his career in '90s, but the winner of nearly 500 career features was plagued by several other back injuries and residual back problems and hasn't raced since suffering multiple broken bones in a 2005 motorcycle crash near his home.

For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.


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