"He Tried Too Hard"

On a warm Sunday afternoon this week, word buzzed through the crowded stands at the Dayton, Ohio speedway that hard-driving Gordon Reid, 29, was a man to watch. "Flash" Reid was rated as a comer and was scheduled to drive in the Memorial Day race at Indianapolis. Fourteen thousand spectators were watching as Reid, gaining steadily, roared into third place in Dayton's ten-lap event. So, tensely, was Charlie Engle, the builder of Reid's low, powerful Engle-Stanko Special.

Suddenly, the Engle-Stanko spun wildly on the turn into the straightaway, and the right front wheel locked into the guard rail. The car rode the rail for about 100 feet, plunged under a footbridge and hurtled into a screaming group of spectators. Reid was decapitated; two spectators and a track guard were killed; 48 were hospitalized, nine of them seriously injured. Said Charlie Engle sadly: "I could see it coming. Reid was just trying too hard. That's all there is to it. He tried too hard."

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