A Bad Spill
Wise took this wild ride at Terra Haute, Indiana that sidelined him for a while in 1969.
In 1969, again, he drove the “RZ Special” (which has been restored and went on display at the Sprint Car Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Iowa) number 12 on the USAC trail. At Terra Haute, Indiana, he took a terrible spill that put him out of action for awhile and into Stock Car Racing magazine with a full page, multipicture spread. That was not the way to make the magazines.
The car was easier to mend than the driver was and the team ran with a substitute driver until later in the summer. After he returned to the team, Herman had another accident – this time at Eldora Speedway. A rock struck Herman in the forehead, smashing his bubble shield in the process. Somehow he steered the car into the pits but was so far out of it, he just chugged along. Several pit workers ran alongside the car to get it stopped. That was the end of his USAC driving.
To start 1970, Herman drove a CAE copy he bought from Johnny Ardis; on a part-time basis he planned his next move.
Later in 1970, he made his move when he bought a brand new Hill Engineering sprint car out of McKenzie, Tennessee. Hill is now J&J owned by Jack Elam. With this car, Herman campaigned at Atomic Speedway in Alma, Ohio and Portsmouth, Ohio, as well as Southern Indiana. He even tried his hand at the Little 500 on the quarter-mile asphalt in Anderson, Indiana. This race starts 33 sprint cars, three wide on the night before the Indy 500. It has been a fixture on the sprint car scene for over 50 years now. Later in 1970, he ran some special end-of-the-year events in Central Pennsylvania.
The next year, 1971, Herman invaded the Central Pennsylvania circuit with his Deep South sprinter. He had since completed apprenticeship in the open wheel modifieds and super-modifieds of the South and with the USAC sprint years, Herman felt he could eke out a living running his car on the tough but well paying circuit. To supplement his income, he would do welding at nearby Three Mile Island nuclear power plant.