2018 AERS Race 16 - Seattle (Windstar 275)

Top: Sam Davids Racing
Flop: Knee, JN teammates, NR2003 for throwing a random yellow

Brewer severely injured in terrifying crash

After a terrifying accident with 3 laps to go in the Windstar 275, Ben "Bjorn" Brewer is left clinging to life in a local hospital.

The Georgia native contested with the main pack throughout the race, keeping himself in contention for his first career AERS victory. Taking 3 laps to go, Greg Knee and Nate Smith made contact crossing the start/finish line, carrying Smith and Tommy Ritcher to the inside grass in Turn 1. Knee unsuccessfully merged back on track and took several cars with him into the outside wall. Brewer narrowly avoided being swept up, but unfortunately crossed paths with the rear end of Smith's car crashing into his windshield and badly damaging the left A-pillar on Brewer's car. The 93 in turn was launched into Casey Lester's car and caught enough air to ride the wall, flip down the track and come to rest in the infield after landing on top of Jalen Scransen.

Medical crews rushed out to the destroyed Rockstar Chevrolet to find Brewer unresponsive. He was helicoptered to Harborview Medical Center and diagnosed with a Grade III concussion, a broken left hand/wrist, a broken ankle, fractures to multiple vertebrae and internal bleeding. Reports suggest that Brewer's injuries may be life-threatening, but there have not yet been any further updates in terms of his condition. Porter Racing Corporation do not have a reserve driver/entry, so it has been speculated that they will promote Florent Vachon to the AERS for the remaining four races.

Deefer edges Short; Wins Windstar 275 amid chaos

The final laps of the Windstar 275 were something AERS fans hadn’t seen for a very long time. Tight, close racing with action on every inch of the racing surface. The intensity, the drama and ultimately the finish proved to be one for the ages on this overcast Seattle night, and it was one fans will not forget anytime soon.

Overall, the race kind of dragged, there wasn’t much action aside from a small pileup early in the race. It was yellow free for a long time after that, until a caution for rain in the area brought the field together. With pit strategy now out of the picture, and the field all in one pack, it was time for drivers to make moves.

Ashton Short dominated the race, leading 34 of the race’s 106 laps total. He looked to be in control on the restart with 8 to go in his #19 Budweiser Chevy. He paced the field until lap 103, where everything turned for the worst.

Thrilling racing that had fans on the edges of their seats, turned into absolute chaos. Greg Knee, Tommy Ritcher, and Nate Smith we’re all battling for the win, sitting in the top-5 with less and less time to make moves. The aggression eventually found its way into mayhem, when Knee and Smith made contact just outside of Tommy Ritcher in a four wide situation. Smith and Ritcher made contact and sent the 2 and 83 into the inside of the racetrack. Knee also got dragged down to the apron, but caught his car just in time, only to be turned in front of the pack creating a big pileup in the first corner. The scary part had not yet happened. While Knee was being put into the outside wall, Ritcher and Smith both slid through the infield grass at 180 mph and had no way to slow down, eventually spinning up and into the rest of the field creating destruction. The 83 slid up and into Bjorn Brewer, sending the 93 into the catchfence. Tommy Ritcher slid up into Keith Jesse and sending his #2 Ford extremely hard into the outside wall. Casey Lester also was collected, having Brewer’s 93 land on top of his car before flipping down the track. Aaron Anderson, Jimmy Cohon, and Guy Beugnet took hard hits as well, and the rest of the field was collected in the mayhem. Jean Serratore, Darcy Lusk, and Caine Dwyer also took hard hits into the outside wall, but managed to continue on to battle for the 3rd spot.

This left two cars, yes, two cars, left to battle for the victory for one lap coming to the yellow flag to call the race. Tyler Deefer stalked the #19 of Ashton Short and made his move in turn 4. The two were in a dead heat through the tri oval, but coming out of it, Deefer gained a slight edge, and held on by a quarter of a car length to take the caution and win the Windstar 275. Deefer made sure to not celebrate and was very quiet in victory lane, instead thinking of the drivers involved in the big wreck in turn 2.

“I’ll talk to you guys about my win another time. Right now, we’re all just thinking of the guys over there in [turn] 1. I didn’t really see it in my rear view, I was too focused on tracking down Ashton, but what I saw and what I was told, it was very ugly.”

Deefer records his 4th career win, all coming within the last two seasons. He now vaults up to 7th in drivers standings, and is just 139 points behind leader Mikael Carter, who finished 17th. The points battle had previously been trimmed to 6 cars, but Deefer and rookie Madison Vermette have slowly closed in and made it an 8 car battle for the title.

Rookie Ashton Short was disappointed with his second place finish, but acknowledged that his team has improved immensely over the course of the year.

“In the tri oval there I just couldn’t get the grip I needed. It’s tough, I really want to get that first dub, but it’s tough to win in this series. I’ll get it eventually but you can see we’re oh so close. We’ve been getting better and better every race so I know it’s close.”

Meanwhile, after the carnage wrapped up from the first corner incident, several drivers took to the media center after going to the care center. Jimmy Cohon was the first to talk from the accident.

“I’m a bit banged up to be honest with y’all.” he said, “I’m still going to be evaluated some more but chances are, I’ll make the trip next race. I can’t tell you what happened there but it was scary driving through it. I kind of blacked out when I hit whoever that was, so it was scary. But I think it’s just a matter of everyone going for it there. It’s nothing about the track or the cars, it was driving at the absolute max, it sucks we couldn’t salvage a good finish, but everyone was trying to win.”

Steven Cortez was unharmed after spinning his Sam Davids owned 96 around, but had some thoughts on the accident.

“I’ve been in a few of these nasty wrecks but this one was the worst looking, I think.” he claimed, “I don’t think I’ve been in more disbelief than when I got my car fired and drove by everything. The catchfence destroyed, cars on fire, debris everywhere. It was a nightmare.”

Rookies Caine Dwyer and Jean Serratore were both involved, and both had similar things to say.

“It’s just racing. That’s going to happen when we’re all trying to be our best.” said Dwyer, “I think it’s just part of our sport, and we have to do our best to win races.”

Dwyer finished 10th after looking like his first victory was in the cards.