Fire is a racecar driver’s biggest fear and there are few things more frightening than the prospect of experiencing fire on a rally stage miles from any fire crew. That circumstance befell not one but two World Rally Championship drivers during Stage 5 of Rally Portugal. New Zealand’s Hayden Paddon was fresh off his dramatic first-ever WRC win in Argentina with his Hyundai i20, but a big wreck on the stage sent his Hyundai skittering off into the Portuguese forest. The car then caught on fire, turning a good section of trees ablaze. Paddon and his co-driver John Kennard both escaped the blaze.
Estonian driver Ott Tänak (of “Save the Ti-Tänak” fame) happened along at just the wrong time in his Ford Fiesta, also flying off the course and coming to rest just a few feet from Paddon’s flaming car. Tänak and his codriver Raido Molder both scooted from the wreck intact. After making sure they were fine, the pair enlisted the help of spectators, one of whom lent a winch to pull the Ford just far enough to keep it from burning up as the Hyundai had by that time. Even so, Tänak tended to some desperate firefighting of his own to keep his car intact to run another day, unlike the crispy Hyundai a few feet away.
