It began as a slight movement to the left off the starting line and then it turned into a wrestling match between the driver and the car with the driver ultimately going for the ride of his life. It has been a rough month for California’s Jay Payne. At Indy a parachute issue sent his funny car hurtling into the sand after he crossed the finish line at 265mph and now at St Louis his pro mod was destroyed in a high speed wreck during qualifying.

As you will see in the video his blown alcohol powered Camaro went left on the hit (as a bunch of cars did that session in that lane) and Payne tries to fight it back into the groove with his foot to the floor. He nudges the car once, he nudges it again, and finally the third time the thing has so much power and such a head of steam it all goes very wrong. Between the lateral movement and the fact that the car was out in the “marbles” instead of being in the groove, the car darted toward the center of the track and as that was happening it was rotating around to the point that the air got hold of it and Jay Payne was officially removed from controlling the situation in any capacity at that point.

Thankfully Chuck Little of New Hampshire was able to make a clean run and avoid the wayward Camaro by a very slim margin as Payne crossed the track and went face first into the wall. The car spun and got the rear quarter in a very hard secondary impact and then headed across the track for a third hit before coming to a stop. This was a rough one but Jay was OK.

Should be have lifted? You make the call there. All we’re going to say is that there are 30 cars here for 16 spot, this was the second of three sessions they’ll have to qualify, and the pressure is high on everyone. We’re very glad that Jay is OK and if you remember correctly, Jay’s wife Shelly suffered a pro mod crash of similar style at the same track and in that same lane a few years back. That’s perhaps the oddest thing of all.

Press play below to see Jay Payne suffer a huge crash in his pro mod at St Louis –