By Travis Thayer
Stephen D. Cox, 30, was driving as apart of an amateur driving experience at Kentucky Speedway when car crashed into the wall on Sept. 14, 2014. File photo. (Sparta, Ky.) – The family of an amateur driver who was killed in a crash at Kentucky Speedway last year filed a lawsuit Wednesday. Stephen D. Cox, 30, of Germantown, Ohio crashed into a concrete wall at excess of 100 mph while participating in the Rusty Wallace Racing Experience on September 14, 2014. The Racing Experience event travels to many racetracks around the country, allowing amateur drivers to pay to drive on a professional track. During the crash, Cox broke his skull, his spine, and multiple other bones in the crash. He succumbed to those injuries a week later. The family’s lawyer, Gary Leppla, wrote in the lawsuit that the steering wheel fell off in Cox’s hands while driving around the track causing him to lose control and crash into the wall. However, race car steering wheels are designed to be removed so drivers can climb in and out of the cramped cabins. Cox’s lawsuit alleges the wheel was put on upside down and not locked into place. At least two others have experienced the same malfunction while participating in the Racing Experience at other tracks. The family’s lawsuit also argues that the head and neck stabilization device was improperly harnessed, and that his seat-belt and window net were both years past the expiration dates used by NASCAR. The family also says that the waiver their son signed should not matter, as he was not warned he would be driving a faulty, outdated, and unregulated car. The family also says that Cox was given minimal training before he was turned loose on Kentucky Speedway, a track that is known as one of the roughest tracks in NASCAR. The lawsuit was filed in United States District Court in Covington, Kentucky. The lawsuit lists the Kentucky Speedway as a defendant, along with the Rhode Island-based Rusty Wallace Racing Experience and its owner, Mark Ebert; an offshoot company called SITYS, LLC; and a number of employees.
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