Fire. You’d be hard-pressed to find a word that frightens race car drivers more. United States Touring Car Championship competitor Gary Sheehan found that out November 12 during the final USTCC round at Thunderhill Raceway Park. During the race, Sheehan’s Hyundai Genesis Coupe burst into flames and he very quickly found himself battling against rippling flames and choking smoke while he tried to steer the car toward help. Gary made it out and you can read his account below with video and some very sobering photos.

Here are the photos and quotes from Gary’s Facebook page. He offered to shared because he thinks it’s an important opportunity to learn from someone who’s been there so you don’t have worse outcome(s):

“Always wear your safety gear and make sure your gear is in tip-top shape. You never know when it will be put to the test. The photo below is the left arm of my fire suit. It was white, grey, and black. The brown, yellow and pink parts are the charred areas from the car fire I just escaped from.

“This just happened in the season finale weekend of USTCC. I was driving the GoGoGear Hyundai Genesis Coupe. I had qualified first, and was leading the race while we were in the middle of our 2nd full course yellow.

“I don’t what the cause of the fire was. I radioed in what I thought was tire smoke in turn 9 of Thunderhill. It cleared up in 10-11, but on the back straight it started smoking again. Gray rubber smoke. As I turned in to 14 I saw flames come through the hood and immediately had a big slide because something was dumping on the track in front of the rear tires. Same thing through 15 as I tried to get it into the pits. My thought was to get the car to where there would be lots of safety people to help deal with the fire.

“Harder said than done, as there was massive oversteer with flames coming up the right side passenger window opening. Made for a pretty good show from what I heard later.

“All of a sudden the cockpit filled with black smoke and flames shot up from under the hood by the windshield. I slammed on the brakes and hit the fire bottle, which did next to nothing. I felt a little squirt on the front of my suit, then nothing more. Then the whole car went up with flames everywhere. I got the net down but I had trouble bailing out as my radio cable got hung up. I took a breath right as flames hit my left arm and left side of my helmet. That fucking sucked. Super hot and heavy vapor.

“Spencer Rowlands, one of my crew guys, just pulled the door open just as I was opening it. I was running out of air and needed to take a breath, but couldn’t because of the heat and flames. Started getting scary about then.

“I finally bailed out with Spencer helping to pull me through the flames, landed on the ground and rolled away. That first ragged breath was nice. Like when your forcing yourself to hold your breath against the clock to see how long you can go, and when you can’t take it any more you finally exhale and breath in. It felt like that.

“It was tough to breath after that. Felt like I had a sinus infection and scratchy irritated throats down to the top of my lungs.

“While I was sitting on the tarmac the fire crew was trying to put the car out. The flames came so fast that I had no time to hit the kill switch. They only had water, and couldn’t knock the fire down. Took about 10 minutes of burning before the flames died down enough to get the trunk open and cut the battery cable. The car is a total loss.

“So a 45 minute ambulance ride and now I’m sitting in Enloe Hospital breathing oxygen while under observation for the next hour or two to make sure my airway doesn’t swell up. Looking good so far and hoping to get out of here and have a beer soon.

“You never think it’s going to happen to you, and then it does. I always err on the side of caution and always wear my gear, even when driving a street car during a track day. My Alpinestars suit and gloves and Bell helmet did their job and protected me today and I got away with no external burns.

“Sick about the car. It was such a fun little hotrod and was kicking ass again today….A big thanks to all my crew, the drivers and their crews for the care and concern shown to me after the incident. You guys rock!”

And from a separate post with the video:

“Here’s the roof camera from the Hyundai Genesis. Right at 4 seconds just before cresting turn 9, flame can be seen coming out of the right hood scoop. I can’t see this. We believe the recently filled power steering fluid reservoir overheated and boiled over, spraying power steering fluid on the right bank header. I did notice rubber smoke and radioed it in to the pits at this point.

“Remember, we are under full course yellow, so I had plenty of time to pay attention to this and was wondering what was rubbing on a tire to cause it to smoke so much.

“For the next 30 seconds or so the flame can be seen flickering in that hood vent. Just as I cross under the bridge is when the smoke and flames came out from under the car as seen in Patrick’s video I uploaded earlier. We think that’s when the power steering reservoir let go and dumped all its fluid.

“Even through turn 14 I still had no idea there was a fire. I knew I was dumping fluid because the car was oversteering so unpredictably. Just as the flames came out the right hood vent in between 14 and 15 it became apparent I had a “small fire” in the engine bay. I had no idea that flames were shooting out 10 feet behind the car while I was still on the back straight.

“As I’m driving the car down pit lane (exceeding the pit lane speed limit, sorry BMWCCA), I can see the small flame coming out of the hood vent, but can’t see all the flames pouring out the right front wheel well. I wasn’t very concerned at this point.

“Once the car came to a stop at 1:08, that’s when the real excitement began. The flames that leap up on the left side of the car were coming up past my driver side window in a wall. That must have been when the fuel line let go.

“At 1:11 Spencer runs across the picture on his way to open the driver door. It was only after the driver’s door was opened at 1:13 that the flames intruded into the cockpit. When the flames pulled away from the front of the car was when my left leg, arm, hand and helmet were directly exposed to the fire. This was also when I pulled in that super hot breath.

“Spence reached in when I finally broke free and helped guide and pull me out during my dive. By 1:18 I was out of the car and you can hear someone yell “GO, GO!”

“10 seconds is too long to be in a burning car. We’ll be working on that in a number of different ways. I will be getting a coiled radio cord that will give me some range to get away from the car even if still connected. I will be practicing my emergency exits and getting this down to 6 seconds. I will be working with USTCC to have mandatory emergency exit testing at the beginning of each season to ensure drivers can get out of a burning car in under 8 seconds. Additional external fire suppression switches and battery kill switches will be installed to give safety workers easy access to these important safety items. I will be researching fire suppression systems and installing the best I can find. And finally, I’ll be getting more Alpinestars gear, because it kicks ass!”

Here’s another, more frightening view of the fire from the car behind, driven by Patrick Chio.

One last post from Sheehan for now:

“Here are a few more photos of my gear doing their job outstandingly well. If you are driving a race car with an open face helmet, you may want to reconsider that strategy.”

This isn’t really meant as a “Scared Straight” kinda video, but just a friendly reminder from your BangShift friends who’d like you to go home in one piece after a race weekend: Practice egress in the pits and wear the right safety gear the right way. That means balaclava, full-face helmet with visor closed, and the absolute best SFI-rated suit, gloves, and boots you can afford. You won’t regret it.

Many thanks to Gary Sheehan—a 2014 USTCC champion, we should add—for sharing his story and his photos.