The Circuit Mont-Tremblant race track in St. Jovite, Canada has been the scene of many memorable road racing moments but in 1969 the place gained some infamy for being home to a pair of massive crashes that wadded up a bunch of race cars. One of those wrecks was unintentionally captured by a documentary team that was making the film, “The Racing Scene” which followed James Garner through the year and showed off his racing operation. The other massive wreck happened in the Trans-Am race at the track and we believe it happened in about the same place on the track. We don’t have video of that one.
Formula 5000 is one of the coolest road racing classes ever by our estimation. Killer open wheel cars powered by 5-liter small block V8 engines, it combined some hot rod V8 goodness with the best road racing technology of the time. The cars really hauled ass and by virtue of that, there was carnage.
This massive chain reaction crash was started by a car that you’ll see completely blow across the track, smash the outside wall and then shoot back across the racing surface. As all that is happening the entire field of machines comes into the fray and the mayhem begins.
The video is amazing and especially so when the crew jumps the fence and runs into the smoking wreckage of the cars. Road racing is dangerous but it was even more so back then when the cars had none of the safety considerations that they have now. We don’t know who was involved or the extended of any injuries/harm but wow is this wild.
Umm gentlemen , something got missed , at around the 1:00 mark ,, now correct me if I’m wrong ,,, Smokey Yunick ….
That isn’t Smokey.
Incredible footage, that driver climbs out of the flames from that first car that crashed and is standing against the fence before being helped.