Motor Sports / World Of Outlaws -- Drivers Forge Ahead After Fatal Accident

ELMA - Words weren't going to be sufficient.

Instead of reliving Friday night's fatal accident along pit row, Stevie Smith looked at the floor and shook his head.

"I don't have anything to say," Smith said. "That's just a bad deal. A really sad time."

The understatement was laced with emotion, his voice quiet and the gracious smile gone.

He provided a glimpse beneath a race-car driver's charisma and into the emotions of a fatal accident.

Kelly Pole was working on Tony Lutar's sprint car, across pit row from Smith on Friday night during the Wild Wild Northwest Tour stop at Grays Harbor Raceway Park.

A car came into the pit area too fast, hit the back of Smith's car and skidded into Lutar's car. Pole, 37, suffered fatal head injuries and was pronounced dead upon arrival at Mark Reed Hospital in McCleary.

Sprint-car racers know Kelly's brother, Kevin, a full-time crew member for Bob Duncan at Skagit Speedway. Kelly was his only brother, three years younger and a quality-control supervisor at a distribution warehouse in Calgary.

Kelly flew to Vancouver on Wednesday and joined his brother on the trip south to work on Lutar's crew for the weekend. It was the second time in five years Kelly worked with Kevin on a sprint-car crew.

"He was extraordinarily generous," Kevin said of his brother, who was single. "He adopted the sport that I loved."

Kevin returned to his home in Abbotsford, B.C., on Friday night. His father, Ron, flew from Calgary to Vancouver yesterday morning.

"I don't think any of us will ever be the same," said Ron Pole, Kelly's father.

The World of Outlaws sprint-car event resumed Friday night after Pole's death, and the second day of the event continued yesterday. Promoter Fred Brownfield asked Kevin Pole if the event should be canceled on Friday night.

"The show must go on," Kevin said.

The feeling was echoed by fans on hand last night.

"That's racing," said Jay Robideaux of Twin Falls, Idaho. "That's part of racing."

A part of racing drivers try to block out. Daryn Pittman, 20, of Oklahoma walked into his trailer as soon as he heard about the accident.

"Anyone with a conscience can't help but be bothered by it," Pittman said. "Maybe they should have canceled the program, but I don't know what good that would have done."

The races continued last night, sprint cars circling the 3/4-mile track with the bleachers packed, their capacity of 6,100 reached. The roar of engines made casual conversation impossible during the races, but horsepower couldn't erase the pall of Friday night's accident.

A moment of silence preceded the opening ceremony last night, and the Bush Creek Fire Department collected more than $2,000, which will be donated to the Pole family. The family will also receive $625 raised by the World of Outlaws Benevolent Fund at a celebrity go-kart race yesterday afternoon.

The accident occurred before Friday night's races started. Lt. Matt Stowers of Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Department said Allen Michel of Inchelium in Eastern Washington was driving Darin Smith's car when he came into the pits too fast.

Stowers said Michel tried to hit the switch that kills the engine and the switch that shuts off the fuel supply. Stowers said the driver hit only the fuel shut-off lever, which caused a surge of fuel into the engine and sent it into a spin.

"We all fled," Kevin Pole said. "That was the best way to say it."

The car hit Stevie Smith's car, then went into a broadside slide and collided with Lutar's car, hit a 4-foot high tool cart and a four-wheeler. Kelly Pole was run over, all his clothes stripped from his body in the process.

Steve Beitler of Burlington helped perform CPR, but he said Pole was never resuscitated.

Charles Dunlap, father of driver Dan Dunlap from Renton, suffered a broken tibia and fibula in his left leg when he was pinned between the four-wheeler and Dan Dunlap's car.

Charles underwent surgery at Providence St. Peter in Olympia yesterday. Walt Bachman, another member of Dunlap's crew, suffered bruised ribs, but was released from Mark Reed Hospital on Friday night.

Bill Jensen of Lynnwood was one of several local drivers critical of why the accident happened. Jensen was climbing out of his car, one pit down from Dunlap, when he saw the car skidding into the pits.

"There's a big kill switch," Jensen said. "He was still on the gas when he hit them."

Johnson said anyone with a valid street driver's license is covered by insurance and allowed to drive a sprint car, which can reach speeds of 150 mph. He said it was the first fatality at a World of Outlaws event since 1996, when a crew member was killed at a race in Mesquite, Texas.

Racing resumed 30 minutes after the accident. No announcement was made to the crowd on Friday night because the name of the deceased had not been released by police.

Darin Smith's team left late Friday night, and Lutar returned to Canada yesterday morning. And the full-time drivers tried not to think about what had happened, reminded of the fatal possibilities of the sport.

That's why Stevie Smith shook his head and stared at the floor.

"That's not what you come here to see," he said.