We’ve often talked about the risks and dangers associated with races like Baja, Dakar, and others of their ilk. That being said, we’ve never seen a more stark representation of what things look like when it ALL goes wrong for racers during an event of this type. This is another angle on a video that McTaggart showed the other day and what’s interesting about it is that we see the scene as the fans see it. We experience it as someone just sitting there watching the race would and frankly it is pretty scary. One competitor flips, rolls, and ends up on his side. While spectators are trying to right that vehicle another racer comes cartwheeling by them, smashing into the ground, shedding parts, and generally flipping out of control. The panicked screams of people who see this whole scene unfold is one thing but when you consider what could have happened if the second vehicle collided with the already crashed one and all of those people? International tragedy.

As the other vehicle stops flipping, it bursts into flames and people run over to drag the guys out of it. No one has fire extinguishers or anything else to help these guys. It is scary, scary stuff. In a longer cut of this video we saw another racer stop and blast the fire out with his own extinguisher and a helicopter arrives on scene several long minutes later. Don’t get us wrong, we’re not saying that anyone did the wrong thing or did something bad. In fact, it is a testament to the human spirit that people were willing to run headlong at a burning vehicle to help the people inside. Also, it is kind of amazing (in the scope of things) to see how quickly the chopper arrived (you do not see it in this video) because those guys had to be contacted, they had to take off, and actually get there. It was all accomplished in the span of a couple minutes.

So it takes plenty of guts to go hammer down through the desert and handle all of the physical abuse a race like Dakar can dish out, but there’s another level of bravery involved when you consider all of the other stuff that can happen to you out there. Just ask these guys, they’ll be telling the story for the rest of their lives. Truly wild stuff.

PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE A CHAOTIC SCENE IN BOLIVIA AS TWO DAKAR RALLY RACERS WRECK HARD –