Pro Street veteran Vinny Demieri went for the worst ride of his career Saturday night (July 17), when he flipped over his Jerry Bickel-built ’68 Camaro during second-round qualifying for the NMCA/NMRA Superbowl at Route 66 Raceway, near Chicago in Joliet, Illinois.

Running about half-track in the left lane, Demieri drifted toward the center line, but appeared to be pulling back into the groove when his car made a hard turn and hit nearly head on into the left guardwall, immediately turning over on its roof and sliding upside down and on fire through the lights.

Third in Pro Street points heading into the race, Demieri says his first thought upon hitting the wall was, “I wonder how long it’s going to take for Bickel to fix this?”

Pro Street veteran Vinny Demieri went for the worst ride of his career Saturday night (July 17), when he flipped over his Jerry Bickel-built ’68 Camaro during second-round qualifying for the NMCA/NMRA Superbowl at Route 66 Raceway, near Chicago in Joliet, Illinois.

Running about half-track in the left lane, Demieri drifted toward the center line, but appeared to be pulling back into the groove when his car made a hard turn and hit nearly head on into the left guardwall, immediately turning over on its roof and sliding upside down and on fire through the lights.

Third in Pro Street points heading into the race, Demieri says his first thought upon hitting the wall was, “I wonder how long it’s going to take for Bickel to fix this?”

The car left the track the next day in a trailer bound straight to Bickel’s shop in Moscow Mills, Missouri, while Demieri headed home to Long Island, New York. Demieri says he expects to miss the next NMCA outing early in August at Charlotte, but hopes to return to competition later that month at Milan, Michigan.

“If we’re too far out of the points, then we’ll just get ready for the Shakedown at E-town,” he adds.

Demieri traces the accident’s cause back to the maladjustment of new rear shock absorbers on the car after driving toward the left and nearly losing control at the top end of his first qualifying attempt.

“So we put in a little right steer, a little too much right steer, and the shocks were working better, the car was planted. I was past the 330 and before the 1,000 when the car started drifting to the right, I started walking it back toward the left and I’m assuming that the left drive tire grabbed the glue, turned the car and put it into the wall and on its roof,” he says. “I slid past the finish line on the roof at 7.10 and 115 miles an hour. At the eighth I had a 4.19 at 171, but I think I was on all four tires then.”

Demieri stresses it was human and not mechanical error that led to the wreck. “The shocks that we bought from Penske definitely changed the low end on the car. We went down to a 1.02 from a 1.05 on the 60-foot and the 330 went to a 2.70 flat from 2.74, so the shocks were doing what they were supposed to do; we just overcorrected the car.”

Demieri reports feeling like the crash “was never going to end,” but praises the NMCA and Rte. 66 safety crews for a job well done once it did. “I’ve got to tell you, as soon as it stopped the fire crew, the safety crew, they were there and I was out of the car in just a few seconds and the fire was put out. They were fantastic.”

Also drawing kudos was his chassis man for protecting both the driver inside and the Musi Performance 864 c.i., EFI nitrous motor up front.

“I can’t say enough for Jerry Bickel and his people. If you see the car from the firewall back it looks like it’s still brand-new, except for the roof where some of the carbon fiber got worn down,” Demieri says.

“But the rest of the car is mint, the doors, the undercarriage, the engine. The front frame rails are a little bent, the front end burned up and we need a new radiator and stuff like that up there, but the car did its job. A new front clip and a little paint and I think we’ll be alright.”