There were a few close calls during the J&A Service Pro Mod class last weekend during the 2017 Amalie Oil Gatornationals but thankfully no overt wreckage was recorded. The craziest of them all was what you will watch below. Stevie Fast on one side of the track and Brazilian racer Sidnei Frigo on the other. Frigo was in his Corvette and was locking horns with Jackson during final qualifying when things got weird in a hurry. I was at the top end during this round and when Jackson came around the corner he had no idea what went on behind him. Thankfully he was on a good rip because if not, this one would have been a true disaster.
It does not take a rocket scientist to see what happens to Frigo’s car here. As it is pulling down the track there was an engine issue that allowed a bunch of oil to escape and escape on the passenger side of the car. The tires got into that oil and as the right side was clean, it drove the thing immediately across the track. Frigo did a nice job to keep the machine off the wall and while we’re not sure how many times he has seen a competitor’s parachute blossom in his face, we’re guessing he does not want that to happen again.
Jackson was going to make an early shutoff run on this pass but saw Rickie Smith run strongly before him so he decided to drive it through. Had he not driven to the finish line, this would have been a disastrous wreck and we don’t even want to think about the end result of two cars colliding at high speeds.
Frigo and his crew were able to get the car back together for first round but his day ended after that. Stevie Fast lost in the first round as well when a transmission failure threw him for a loop against Eric Latino. This was crazy.
Just like a Corvette guy to tailgate.