Famed Hagerstown crash survivor dies at 79
Jack Bland, a veteran driver, car owner and sponsor well known for surviving one of the worst crashes in Dirt Late Model history, died Tuesday after an extended battle with cancer. The resident of Waldorf, Md., was 79.
A longtime towing company owner, Bland's racing career spanned back to 1969 when he began competing at the Dorsey (Md.) Speedway outside Baltimore. He moved to asphalt a couple years later and enjoyed significant success, winning races and championships at Maryland's Beltsville Speedway and Virginia's Old Dominion Speedway. His biggest victory came in 1976's 250-lap NASCAR Late Model Sportsman portion of the Cardinal 500 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway that included many of the sport's legendary figures.
After his pavement racing took him to most of the NASCAR-sanctioned tracks in Virginia and North Carolina and even attempts at Daytona and Charlotte, he returned to Dirt Late Model racing in 1987. He spent nearly the next decade racing mostly locally at Maryland's Potomac and Hagerstown speedways before his driving career ended on Oct. 13, 1996, with his oft-cited Hagerstown wreck that saw his car knocked out of shape, ramming head-on into the blunt end of the guardrail at the backstretch crossover, ripping his car apart in unfathomable fashion while absorbing a hit from another car.
Bland, trapped in the mangled cockpit, somehow survived with a broken leg as his only injury. He recovered well but never drove again, becoming a car owner instead and fielding Dirt Late Models for a string of standout drivers including Nathan Durboraw (pictured at right above, with Bland), Andy Anderson, Keith Jackson, Jamie Lathroum, Justin Weaver and D.J. Myers. Bland's cars won track championships at Hagerstown with Durboraw in 2005 and Anderson in '15.
"Jack Bland was one of the most genuine, hard-working and simply the most badass person to be around," Justin Weaver wrote in a Facebook post. "Even on our worst nights Jack could brush it off and stay focused on winning and would do whatever it took. Jack taught me a lot about life, family and just enjoying every day."
Arrangements are pending.
