Driver Dies in Crash at Bakersfield
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BAKERSFIELD — Veteran driver Tom Naylor died Saturday night when his supermodified car went out of control and crashed in the third turn during a preliminary race at Mesa Marin Raceway.
Naylor’s car was traveling in excess of 100 m.p.h. when it entered the turn, hit the retaining wall, flipped over and came to rest on its wheels on the half-mile asphalt track.
He was taken to Kern Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead of massive trauma. Naylor, 36, of Boise, Idaho, left three children.
He was the second driver to die in an open-wheel car at Mesa Marin in less than a year. Billy Vukovich III was killed Nov. 25, 1991, in an accident at nearly the same spot where Naylor crashed.
Naylor raced for 20 years in the western United States and finished the season fourth in points at Meridian (Idaho) Speedway.
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