“The Kid is Back”, The return of Billy Coffey
After a terrible wreck at Black Rock Speedway during an Empire Super Sprint race this summer, a lot of people thought Billy Coffey’s sprint car racing days were over. Billy’s car left the track in turns 3 and 4 airborne and soared down the three story embankment and slammed onto the roadway that leads to the pit area. Somehow, during the crash Billy’s neck brace came off. The crash literally destroyed the race car and left Billy with a severely injured neck, and blind for a few hours. Billy was taken to the hospital via Mercy Flight. It was found later that Billy’s neck injury was the closest you could get to breaking your neck without actually breaking it. It took Billy several weeks to recover from his injuries having to wear a stiff collar neck brace and dealing with limited vision in one eye, but was given clearance from the doctors and given a clean bill of health just one week ago.
Talking with Billy on many occasions at the race tracks during his recovery, it seemed as maybe Billy would be making a return to action, then Billy let the cat out of the bag that he and the Sprinter Express team would be making a return to action. Billy’s first outing was at Selinsgrove Speedway, but ran into some troubles during the night. However, The Sprinter Express team made the long haul up to Ohsweken Speedway to participate in the Canadian Sprint Car Nationals, and all I can say is “The Kid is Back”.
Billy time trialed 16th fastest and put on one heck of a show as he won his heat holding off teen sensation Cody Gerdart. Billy was set to start 13th in the feature for the 25 lap event. On the start Billy faded to about 18th, but in the last 10 laps of the event the track came to the car and Billy picked off enough positions to finish in 9th.
After the race, I chatted with Billy and all he could say was his arms were so sore from working the sprinter around the bumpy surface. The track was the bumpiest I have seen it all year and had heard the same complaint from many drivers.
I think just about every fan and racer that knows Billy was extremely happy to see Billy back in action and back to doing what he does so well. Welcome back Billy.
Keep tabs in the future for a follow up, when I’ll update as to what Billy and the Sprinter Express Team has in store for 2004.