Obituary

NASCAR

DASH: Safety worker killed during DASH series race

Tragedy struck at Daytona International Speedway today: not a driver but a safety crew supervisor. During the IPOWERacing DASH 150 event, the track workers, officials and owners suffered the loss of one of their own. On lap nine of the ...

Edited: Apr 23, 2005, 8:50 PM

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Tragedy struck at Daytona International Speedway today: not a driver but a safety crew supervisor.

During the IPOWERacing DASH 150 event, the track workers, officials and owners suffered the loss of one of their own. On lap nine of the event, Tony Billings and Bill Clevenger had contact and the field went under caution.

It was during that caution period that Roy W. Weaver was fatally injured. The veteran supervisor was overseeing the cleanup from the initial accident. Weaver was hit by Ray Paprota's Pontiac in turn two.

The race was immediately stopped.

Weaver, 45, is the first safety crew member to have died at the Speedway, and was sadly killed on his birthday.

Billings was extricated from his Mercury, and listed as alert when transported to Halifax Hospital for precautionary measures. Clevenger was released from the infield care center.

In the history of the Speedway, including the Speedweeks event leading up to the Daytona 500, 35 deaths prior to Weaver have occurred during competition.

The race was restarted at approximately 6:30pm, after a two-hour delay. The 60 lap scheduled race was shortened to 40 laps.

This was the first event for the new owners of the DASH touring series. Randy Claypoole stated "it was a very difficult decision to restart the race," on behalf of himself and his partner at BRDAYTONA, Buck Parker.

The Speedway will withhold further information until after an investigation into the accident.

DIS will release an official statement later.

This tragedy came three years after the loss of racer Dale Earnhardt, Sr. due to an accident in the closing laps of the 2001 Daytona 500.

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