Sat, 30 Mar 2002, 12:24 PM Let’s Keep Them In Our Prayers!

By Bob Frey

Almost everyone is the drag racing world has heard about the tragic accident involving Billy Williams. Billy, one of the great racers in our sport, crashed his car at Rockingham last week and, as I write this, is still in very critical condition. Fewer people have heard about the incident involving Tim Slagle, the driver of Len Cottrell’s "Chicken Choker" alcohol dragster. Tim didn’t crash, but he is also in the hospital with a very serious condition, one that will probably keep him out of action for the rest of this season. Two racers, two completely unpredictable and unrelated occurrences, and two drivers and families who can use all of our thoughts and prayers.

Billy Williams

For those of you who may not know Billy Williams, he is, truly, one of the great sportsman racers of all time. Billy is the kind of racer who epitomizes what this sport is all about. Never content to leave well enough alone, he was always striving to create a better part, a better combination and a better car so that he could compete with the best in the business. Over the years, he did just that. With a couple of U.S. National’s titles, and some of the most memorable battles in the old Pro Comp days, Billy is as good as anyone in the class, from Pro Comp to the alcohol funny cars. When I heard that he had crashed, I was stunned.

When I read about Billy’s accident, I noticed a part of the story that mentioned that Doug Herbert had helped out by sending his plane to pick up Billy’s wife, Diane, and bring her to North Carolina. I was struck by the fact that, at times of need, the drag racing community always seems to come through for their friends. Billy and Doug were friends and had been for a number of years, in fact, when he was about seventeen years old, Doug used to spend a lot of time at Billy’s shop. "He taught me a lot," Doug said. "I’d ask him a lot of stupid questions and he’d answer them all. I thought it was pretty cool getting to hang out with this really neat racer." Over the years the two have stayed in touch, and Billy and Doug continue to do business with one another and they still have their friendly conversations. "Usually after a race he’d call and tell me why I lost. ‘I can’t believe you did this or that and you never did listen to me,’ were his usual comments to me," Doug said with a smile.

Doug was not racing at Rockingham last week, but he was there with Paul Romine, his Top Fuel team mate, and when he heard that Billy had crashed he went down to the end of the track where he expected to find Billy out of the car, kicking it and throwing things around. "You know, I just figured he probably hit the wall, banged the headers up a bit or something like that," Doug said. But it was a lot worse than he or anyone had expected. "When I got down there, they told me he had already been taken to the hospital." It was then that Doug knew he had to help out. He called Billy’s wife, Diane, and told her that he was sending his plane to pick her up. Once she got to North Carolina, Doug and his wife, Sonnie, invited Diane to stay with them at their house and they have provided transportation for her to and from the hospital since then. Plus, Doug called the doctor who looked after him following his devastating crash in Topeka a few years ago. "He’s one of the best neurosurgeons in the country, and I just wanted him to check in on Billy," Doug said. That’s what racers do for their friends.

Tim Slagle

Tim Slagle’s incident hasn’t gotten the attention that Billy’s did and that’s probably to be expected. After all, his problems aren’t related to a crash on the track and he certainly isn’t the high profile racer that Billy is. But Tim’s story is like that of so many other sportsman racers, that is, he holds down a job during the week and races on the weekends when his work will permit it. Tim drove alcohol funny cars for a while and he has been competing in the dragster class for the past few years. Like Billy, Tim did have a severe crash in Virginia a couple of years back, an accident that most people thought would keep him out of racing for a long while, but, like a lot of racers before him, Tim rebounded and came back to race again. With his car owner, Len Cottrell and their popular "Chicken Choker’ s" dragster, Tim had competed at the Division 2 points race in Orlando the week before the Gatornationals, that’s why, when I saw Dave DeAngelis driving for Len at Gainesville, I knew something was wrong. When I asked Len where Tim was, he told me that he was in the hospital in Florida suffering from a very rare infection, an infection that had hooked on to Tim’s spinal cord in the neck area and had basically zapped him of all energy. "We took Tim to the hospital twice in Orlando," Len said, "And they couldn’t find anything wrong with him. We just figured he had the flu or something, but we knew he wasn’t feeling good." When the team got to Gainesville on Tuesday, Tim had a relapse and this time the hospital decided to keep him. After running some tests, they discovered the virus and told Len that Tim could be on his back for up to two months or more while they try to determine the best course of action. "Right now they’re treating it with medication but they haven’t ruled out operating on him. He will be transported up to Virginia this week and his brother, Carl, will take him to a hospital near his home in Clifton." These two racers, Billy and Tim, and their families can certainly use or thoughts and prayers as we head into this holiday weekend. Billy, to the best of my knowledge, is still in a coma at this time, while Tim should be home any day now but may be incapacitated for some time.

Whether it’s a crash or a serious injury, when things like this happen we all realize just how fragile life is. And, at times like this, we also realize that folks like Doug Herbert just go to show what members of our community will do for their fellow racers in time of need. The sport is full of stories of guys who helped their competitors at the track, even if they were going to race them in the next round. And it’s full of stories of people who were there to lend a hand to their friends when it was needed the most. While most of us aren’t fortunate enough to be able to send a plane to help someone, we can send a prayer and our best wishes for Billy and Tim, and believe me, that will mean a lot to the families of these two racers.

If you’d like to send a greeting or a message to either racer, they can be reached at…

Billy Williams…stevemacclutch@mindspring.com (messages will be forwarded)
Billy Williams messages will be forwarded

Tim Slagle…TAFC1177@aol.com
Tim Slagle

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