WEST FARGO, N.D. — A crash during a feature race at the Red River Valley Speedway has killed longtime Fargo race car driver John Schulz.
Schulz, 47, died after the car he was driving rolled on the back straightaway of the second lap in the modified division feature race at the West Fargo track about 9:15 p.m. Saturday, a statement from the Cass County Sheriff’s Department said. Schulz was taken to a Fargo hospital and pronounced dead shortly afterward.
The sheriff’s office said Schulz was a 23-year racing veteran.
He was known as “Johnny 1-5,” the number of his car, said Kevin Nathe, manager of the Buffalo River Race Park in Glyndon, Minn., where Schulz raced on Sunday nights.
“He was kind of a quiet guy, but he loved racing,” Nathe said.
The Buffalo River track’s Sunday night races were going on as scheduled with Schulz’s normal spot in the pit area left open as a tribute, Nathe said. Track officials considered calling off the races because of his death but decided “he’d probably be mad if we did,” Nathe said.
“There some flowers in there now, the spot he’s been parking in for 20 years,” Nathe said Sunday afternoon.
Deputy Sheriff Joe Gress, one of the first officers on the scene of the crash, said Sunday that Schultz’s car was sitting right side up when he got there and did not catch fire. He declined to discuss other details of the crash, saying it is still under investigation.
An autopsy was planned Monday by the state medical examiner’s office in Bismarck, Gress said.
“The next step probably is going to be us sitting down and deciding where we need to take interviews so we can put it all on paper, get it done as thoroughly as we can,” Gress said.
The sheriff’s office said it was the first fatal crash at the Red River Valley Speedway since 1992. Gress said the race was the fourth of six features scheduled at the speedway Saturday night.
“It was definitely a shock,” Nathe said of the fatal crash. “It’s not something you think is ever going to happen. It’s such a freak thing when it does.”
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