Nick Allen...Back with a Vengeance

By: Gary Gasper

March 30, 2008 - If you've wondered where Nick Allen has been, he raced Saturday nite, March 29th, at Brownstown Speedway just south of Indianapolis. It was a "re-baptism of fire" for the 24 year old UMP
Modified driver, after suffering serious injuries from a racing crash last June 30th. He was a little nervous about his first time back in a race car since he's still quite not 100% recovered. He only test drove the new car on the property beside the race shop through the trees at about 5mph!

The crash at Shadyhill Speedway left Nick with a shattered left femur, a broken pelvis in 5 places, a broken tailbone, and a bruised left lung. He had to be airlifted to a hospital in South Bend, Indiana. This was the first time, and hopefully last, that a helicopter had to land in the infield at Shadyhill.

Nick, from Wheatfield, Indiana, started racing go-karts at 15, and between the karts and modifieds, never experienced a crash of this severity. Randy Allen, Nick's dad, who works the 3rd and 4th turns at Shadyhill, and who was present at Shadyhill that night, said"cards, letters, phone calls, and flowers were never ending for Nick during his recovery". Yes, the racing community is one big family……

So now, Nick's in a brand new Pierce Modified with a Mullins race engine sponsored by Hoffman Construction of Demotte, Smith Motors of Wheatfield and Valley Collision Center of Demotte.
Nick's uncle Keith Allen owns the racecar and gets help from friend's Brandon Owens and Mike Hook, along with Randy Allen.

Nothing definite as far as a race schedule for this upcoming year. The #21A raceteam will race at Shadyhill and Kamp Speedway in Boswell, Indiana for the most part. But it's not unusual to load up the trailer and travel somewhere far away to "mix it up".

And that's exactly what they did Saturday morning. Loaded up the new car, about a dozen Hoosier tires, most of the equipment from the race shop, and all of the aforementioned names and drove down to Brownston Speedway. The beautiful new white, black and red #21A joined about 60 other UMP modifieds in the pit area and after finishing 2nd in his heat race, Nick started the feature in 7th position.

OK, so now here's Nick Allen, first race back in an untested car, a little nervous and still not 100% body-wise, and what does he do?? Are you sitting down??? He WINS the $1,000 to win feature from the 7th starting position. A phone call from the President wasn't made to Victory Lane, but the next best thing happened. Randy Allen was so excited that he called Nick's grandparents in Florida to tell them the good news.

Getting home at 3:30 in the morning was the easy part. The hard part was finding room in the hauler for the first trophy of the year! The new car has been tested and Nick Allen is on his way to a complete recovery!

Left to right: Car owner, Keith Allen; Mike Hook; Randy Allen; Driver, Nick Allen