Mt. Vernon, IL
Stuck Throttle Possible Cause of Deadly Racetrack Crash
Aug 22, 2005, 2:03 PM


Donald Roznowski


Jeffrey Conner

Stuck Throttle Possible Cause of Deadly Racetrack Crash
By: Carly O'Keefe

Mt. VERNON, IL -- Two people are dead and six injured after a race car left the track and crashed into the stands at the Mount Vernon Speedway Saturday night.

According to Investigators, 38-year-old Kevin Beatiee of DuQuoin was trying to qualify his car for the race when he lost control. Beatiee tells police he believes his throttle became stuck. The car hit the concrete track wall, and vaulted up into the grandstand. The two people killed were 51-year-old Donald Roznowski and 18-year-old Jeffrey Conner, both of DuQuoin.


"Right now everyone's in shock. It's kind of hard to figure out how and why something like this could happen," said Conner's uncle John Conner.

Two families and an entire community are in disbelief after what happened Saturday night.

"I didn't know he was at the races, until they called and told me he was killed. I've never heard of a car going into the stands," said Cousin Eugene Roznowski.

Roznowski loved car races. Friends say just like the cars on the track, Roznowski was always running.

"We call him "Zoomy" because he was always on the fly. He was always going and doing so many things,"said friend and fellow DuQuoin Fire Fighter Adam Hill.

"he was a very busy guy, he was always working on something, always helping," said friend and DuQuoin Fire Assistant Chief Bob Shaw.

Roznowski was a volunteer fire fighter, and worked with a racing team on a pit crew. Sometimes he even combined those talents.

"He put his love of fire fighting with racing together, doing fire suppression on the DuQuoin Mile, or Gateway," said Hill.

18-year-old Jeffrey Conner was watching the race with Roznowski when the out-of-control race car vaulted into the grandstand.

"He was a young boy who had his future ahead of him. Jeffrey was a real good kid," said John Conner.

Conner's coaches and family say he was a gifted athlete on last year's DuQuoin High School Football Team. He graduated and was looking forward to going to college at John A. Logan Community College.

"He was doing all the right things,and the good things in life. It's too bad this had to happen to him," said John Conner.

Friends say the deaths of both men will be felt throughout DuQuoin.

"It really is a tragic loss. They were both good people. One already busy in his community, the other guy going to school next week. It's a loss for this community. It really is," Shaw said.

Donald Roznowski age 51

Jeffrey Connor 18 yrs old

Latest spectator deaths put dirt race tracks under scrutiny

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Associated Press
Posted: 2 hours ago


Mike Higginson was worried enough about safety at the Illinois dirt track where he raced that he told his 13-year-old son to watch from the upper reaches of the wooden bleachers. The advice saved the boy's life.

While waiting his turn for a qualifying run at the Mount Vernon Raceway on Saturday night, Higginson watched in horror as Kevin Beattie's stock car vaulted a short wall and hurtled through a chain-link fence, killing two spectators. Beattie and five fans were injured.

As investigators try to unravel what went horribly wrong, Higginson hopes the tragedy spurs the nation's 800 dirt tracks - and the insurance companies that dictate site safety in the unregulated sport - to reevaluate whether spectators are truly protected.

"If fans don't feel safe, we won't have racing. It's that simple," Higginson said.

Some track operators consider any calls for beefier measures unnecessary, saying spectator deaths are rare. Others say fans assume a certain risk, much like baseball fans who understand they may have to duck a hard-hit foul ball or shard of a shattered bat during a game.

In dirt-tracking racing, various sanctioning groups adopt and enforce rules involving competition - not safety, an issue that track operators readily cede to their site's insurers. Because there's no federal or state oversight of dirt tracks - and because insurers write policies on a case-by-case basis - no uniform safety regulations apply.

"Insurance companies rule the roost, and they're stringent," said Doc Lehman, a former promoter and sanctioning official who now edits Ohio-based dirtamericaonline.com, an electronic trade magazine. "They've got all the power, and they're doing the best they can to keep everyone as safe as possible."

Several companies that insure dirt tracks either declined comment or failed to return telephone messages.

Beattie has told investigators that his car's throttle stuck before the vehicle hopped the concrete wall and knifed through fencing about 10 feet high. It wasn't immediately clear whether the fencing included cabling commonly used at tracks to catch cars, keeping them out of the stands.

No charges have been filed. Authorities, who are reconstructing the accident and haven't said how fast Beattie's car may have been traveling, say the investigation may take weeks.

The track's owner, Rick Heck, has declined to publicly discuss his track's safety or insurance. On his track's Web site, Heck says the quarter-mile oval will remain closed at least until the investigation by Illinois State Police is over.

"We can only imagine what the families are going through now," Heck wrote. "It's is by far the hardest thing that I have ever witnessed, and I hope to never have anything like this occur at any track."

Recent history, though, shows it has.

The Charlotte Observer reported in 2001 that of 260 people killed in auto racing nationwide since 1990 from Nextel Cup and Indy car events to dirt-track races, 29 were spectators, including five children. At least 70 other spectators were injured, often from car parts and debris that cleared protective fences.

Recent accidents include a 2003 crash at a track near Los Angeles that sent a car into the inner field, killing a couple, and a 2001 incident at an Ohio speedway in which two cars jumped a guard rail, killing one spectator and injuring at least 11 others.

At Iowa's half-mile Knoxville Raceway, the last accident involving a fan was in the early 1980s, when a shock absorber flew off a car and hit a woman's head, seriously injuring her. Since then, smaller, heavier mesh screens have been installed to catch flying debris, though racing chief Ralph Capitani says "even that's not perfect."

"Every person who goes to sit in the grandstand is accepting a risk. We post that all over here," he said. "Sometimes, there's not much you can do."

Higginson, 48, had that helpless feeling Saturday at the Mount Vernon track about 80 miles southeast of St. Louis. After he saw the car head toward his son's direction in the bleachers, he frantically fumbled to undo his seat belts and helmet and search for his son, Ryan.

The father scrambled toward Beattie's car, resting squarely on the bleachers, and saw victims on the ground below, Ryan not among them. Only moments later did Ryan turn up unscathed, next to his dad's car.

"I think I aged about 10 years," Higginson said. "I hope everyone learns something from this."

Two deaths stir call to fix dirt racetrack
BY JOEL CURRIER
Of the Post-Dispatch
Sunday, Aug. 21 2005

MOUNT VERNON, Ill. - Friends and family members of two spectators killed by a
race car that hopped a concrete wall and crashed through a chain-link fence at
the Mount Vernon Raceway say the dirt track is a safety hazard and should be
fixed up or shut down.

Dead are Donald Roznowski, 51, and Jeff Conner, 18, both of Du Quoin, Ill.

They were killed Saturday evening by a stock car that rounded a curve, went up
a dirt embankment against a 4-foot-high concrete wall and plunged into the
bleachers on the northwest end of the quarter-mile dirt racetrack, witnesses
and authorities said Sunday. The front of the car landed near the top of the 12
or so rows of wooden bleachers.

Race car driver Kevin Beattie, 38, of Benton, Ill., lost control of his car in
a qualifying round for late-model stock cars about 6:50 p.m. Saturday. The
track was shut down after the accident.

Four other spectators injured in the crash were treated at a hospital in Mount
Vernon. They are Kevin Noble, 29, of Huntingburg, Ind.; John Hartung, 32, of
Carbondale, Ill.; John Marks, 67, of Eldorado, Ill.; and Jeffrey Stanley, 29,
of West Frankfort, Ill.

Another injured spectator, Carl Hartung, 41, of Eldorado, was airlifted to St.
Louis University Hospital, where he was listed in serious condition Sunday.

"Something needs to be done to make it safer," said Beth Roznowski, 25, one of
Donald Roznowski's daughters. She has worked as a pit crew member with her
father, a racing enthusiast, for years.

"That fence could in no way withstand any car going up against it," she said.

A 4-foot-high concrete wall and a chain-link fence about 10 feet high form the
barrier between the track and the bleachers. Witnesses said dirt spraying from
the tires of skidding race cars commonly forms a steep embankment that slopes
toward the top of the concrete wall.

Race car driver Mike Higginson was third in line to start his qualifying round
when he saw Beattie's car crash into the bleachers. Higginson said his
13-year-old son, Ryan, missed being struck by the car by just a few feet.

"I've seen a lot of wrecks up there, but I've never seen a car come completely
through the fence," said Higginson, 48, of Jefferson County, Ill. He has raced
at the track for more than a decade. "I knew that was going to happen one of
these days."

Racetrack owner Rick Heck declined to comment on the track's safety conditions
but said he sympathizes with the victims' families.

"I've been racing at that track since 1978, and this is the first time anything
of this magnitude has happened," Heck said.

Former racetrack owner Kevin Lomax said he paid thousands of dollars to build
the concrete wall guarding the bleachers. He said he sold the track about five
years ago but wouldn't comment on the track's safety.

Donald Roznowski was the father of Conner's girlfriend, Jami Roznowski, 16,
friends and family members said. Donald Roznowski had been a maintenance
supervisor in the Du Quoin School District since the mid-1990s and a volunteer
firefighter. His fiancee, Jennifer Dilliner, 28, of Du Quoin, said their
wedding was planned for March. Between them, they had four children, Christina
Smith, 27, of Carbondale, Beth Roznowski, 25, of Du Quoin, and Jami Roznowski,
all from his former marriage, and their 2-year-old, Katelynn.

"I'm still in shock," Dilliner said. "He was my best friend and my soul mate."

The engaged couple had recently returned from a road trip to Yellowstone
National Park in Wyoming with Katelynn, Dilliner said.

Donald Roznowski was known by many as "Zoomie," a nickname given to him by a
nun in Roman Catholic high school.

"He was a very high-energy person," she said. "He was always running around
doing something. He never sat down."

Conner played varsity football before graduating this spring from Du Quoin High
School, said his grandmother Joyce Lucas, 56, of Du Quoin.

Last week, he started criminal justice classes at a John A. Logan Community
College in Carterville, Ill., and aspired to become a state trooper.

Lucas said her grandson was an active member of his church youth group, loved
playing and watching sports, and recently took up deer hunting with his
friends. She said Conner was a huge Rams fan.

"He loved watching the races and tinkering around with cars," Lucas said. "He
died doing what he loved to do."

Funeral arrangements for both victims are pending.

Bill Bryan of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
Reporter Joel Currier
E-mail: jcurrier@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8744