Jon Baker has the honor of sharing a name with one of television’s most famous fake police officers, but in the other direction he recently suffered a very nasty wreck in his x275 Mustang at a Tennessee Street Outlaws race recently. According to the description attached to the video, this is Baker’s first crash in more than a decade and a half of racing. We’re sad to see it happen to him but we are glad that his car has a good cage and that he was properly strapped in and ready to race. The car takes a hard shot and then ends up on the lid, skidding along. Had the cage been compromised much, Baker would have been killed.
THE ACTION IN THE VIDEO STARTS AT 3:00 — FAST FORWARD TO THERE IF YOU WANT TO GET RIGHT TO IT.
As you’ll see, the car comes off the line well enough and things appear to be going ok. There’s always a lot of driving to be done in a small tire car so all of that is somewhat to be expected. Oddly, the driver never places his second hand back on the wheel before trying to stave off the crash by getting the chute out. The ‘chute doesn’t have the desired results and the car careens across the track hits a barrier or armco and it heads briefly skyward before landing, smashing all the glass out, and skidding to a stop as a basically totaled mess.
You really gotta see this one to believe it. Truly wild footage!
THE ACTION IN THE VIDEO STARTS AT 3:00 — FAST FORWARD TO THERE IF YOU WANT TO GET RIGHT TO IT.
PRESS PLAY BELOW TO WATCH THE WRECK….AND REMEMBER, START THE VIDEO AT 3:00 IF YOU WANT TO GET RIGHT TO IT!
Note to drivers, don’t take your hands of the G-D sterring wheel! This tool grabs the upper bar, and the car goes on it’s roof! He could have lost all his fingers if it had gone just a little differently…
The Danica Patrick video posted a while ago showed an even better reaction: She’d removed her hands from the wheel only once she realized a crash was inevitable, but she held her hands about eight inches from her face, not holding onto anything at all. Probably takes a lot of discipline to do THAT in a crash, but it is about the least likely position for breaking wrists or other injuries.
All Indy car driver are taught to let go of the wheel when they are in a crash. If your holding the steering wheel and hit the wall on an open wheel car it will break your wrist instantly. She just carried that onto her NASCAR driving because it is now an instant reaction for her.
Ok… For ONE THING! This is my f****** brother!! And he did what CAME TO HIM 1st! Like they said… This was his first time in a wreck of 16years racing! I think u need to be saying.. GOD was with him at this very moment of time! He’s TRAINED his self VERY WELL in case ANY instance like this happened! God was with my brother on this day for sure! Resay your words very carefully next time! Thank u..
Don’t sweat the Monday Morning QB going on here. I watched the vid and he did the first thing he should, pull the chute. After that it’s up to the cage to keep him safe. And it did. Obviously the cage builder did a good job. Stay safe out there.
Sucks to hurt your car , one thing though. Neck collar . That helmet gets heavy when your melon is bouncing around .
Personally, I’m not a fan of neck collars unless it’s for karting. HANS (or similar) are more expensive, but are also MUCH safer. A neck collar actually adds weight to your head, making a basal skull fracture more likely.
Arm restraints? Roll Bar Padding? Hans? Neck donut? anything? Natural Selection?
Agree with above comment – whilst watching the video I cringed when the guy grabbed the overhead diagonal.
Someone I know years ago – similar deal but street racing now only has a thumb and 1 partial finger on his right hand.
Glad to see he wasn’t hurt because we all know cars are replaceable or can be repaired.
REALLY, not evern an OH SHIT! amazing…….
Agree with all the above safety issues. One that wasn’t noted was the back-seated nitrous valve. Valves should never be back seated unless they NEED to be because of a failed seal (valve packing). Most cylinder valves and a lot of other types of valves are designed to be back-seated but only in the event of a failure. This allows pressure to be safely relieved and then the valve taken out of service for repair. Continual back-seating of the valve can cause stem failure which will leave the valve completely useless (unable to close or back-seat). The proper valve operation is to open the valve gently until it is fully open, then back in the closed direction 1/4 to 1/2 turn.
He whacks the throttle then turns into it, no neck collar, wrong pants seat is way to small. Safty first, the only reason tracks have a tech guy is for violators, we have one here.
If he had violated ANY RULES, I think out of the HUNDRED TRACKS he’s raced at around the US this past 16 years, they would’ve been addressed to him! This is my brother.. And he has 2 so sons which are my nephews; they have grew up around racing there entire life. They had dragsters but there 16 now and grew out of them but r building them a race car of there own now. There father, my brother, has helped them with there dragsters and there car. (And not to mention everyone else from there main track, and family.) I THINK safety has come first with his car AND my nephews car. My sister would NEVER even let her husband OR her sons race anywhere if she didn’t think there was any kind of safety in either cars.
How about the one thing we have missed his face shield was open also look at all the glass that goes by his face……..
Don’t for get along with all the safety suggested, how about a properly designed funny car cage, idk who certified that, but the driver wasn’t really even sitting in it. Hell the driver really doesn’t seem to fit well in the car… Glad to see the guy wasnt hurt deffenitly could of been worse…
As far as the neck collar, its better to use one then usin nothing at all. A hans isnt going to help you if your head snaps side to side. Some of the head and neck deals the sprint guys use i hear are far better then a hans,
This is a freaking disaster waiting to happen. No window net, no cage net, no foam padding on the inside of the cage area around his head. And did anyone notice that the ‘hip belts’ don’t even go through an opening in the seat……they’re outside the seat. Glass everywhere upon impact and a visor on the helmet open the whole time. At least the NOS bottle was mounted more securely than the driver is. Still, if it had broken loose from the pass. seat area ………….how would you like to get knocked in the head with that thing on a roll-over? Why is this NOS bottle even mounted in the driver’s area? Who ever did the tech inspection ought to be summarily drawn and quartered!!
Not to mention his seat belts weren’t tight…
He tightened his seat belts 3 times before he took off. And the NOS bottle isn’t in the driver area; it’s in the passenger floor board.
Don’t listen to all these yahoos. The seat isn’t a violation, but I have always used a high back and wrap around. Most of these guys wouldn’t know what to do in a crash. Hope your bro rebuilds, and goes even faster. Roll bar padding might be a good idea. lol
Wow how many Jack asses does it take in order for everyone to realize that this guy is okay, “safety” issues or not this is his passion and put it all on the line, and loved doing it. So unless all of you can post your own videos of 100% perfect car that can take ANY impact or crash, be fine, and you YOURSELF does nothing that is safely questionable in an accident like his. Shut ya damn mouth.
-Glad you’re okay guy. Sorry bout your Stang-(She looked gorgeous goin out btw) And good job Hillary for sticking up for your brother. I woulda done the same.
I have to do my homework!! I missed a lot of details !!
Been there —done that— and it sucks
Thank u.. At least u wasn’t negative Nelly like the rest up top! This is my brother. We’re just glad he’s alive and we’ll and crawled out Nd walked away.
Hillary don’t pay no attention to the keyboard racers they always have something to say cause they have never raced. Vernhouseracecars built the role cage an did a damn good job. It is a Nhra 25.5 cert an yes I did mess up by putting my hand up butt who wouldn’t in this case. An the seatbelts are mounted properly. When you hold 250 lbs upside down an can walk away in harmed I would say the car is real safe. Unless you have wrecked something other than your Honda you need not comment anyway.
EXACTLY!!!! Hahahaha
Although I don’t agree with everyone’s comments or how some of them were written, there is still no need to get so defensive just because the driver is your brother. Just because he has never violated any regulations and he takes his safety very seriously doesn’t mean that there are not some minor safety issues illustrated in the video that other people can learn from just in case they ever find themselves in the same unfortunate situation as your brother. I completely understand that things like grabbing the top rail can’t be avoided as it was simply a survival instinct in a panic situation and not your brother’s fault. I think that a lot of people on here would do the same unless they have recently been in a roll over and learnt the lesson the hard way themselves. However sometimes things can just get overlooked and forgotten about after so many years of accident free racing, such as the open visor. This is something that could have led to a more serious injury if he had been unlucky and would have been a shame as it is something that could have been fixed very easily. But habits are habits good or bad and although your brother probably will close it next time, having these “negative nellys” pointing out this sort of issue in their posts may help other drivers think about themselves so they can avoid being in the same situation one day. The sport needs to stay safe and unfortunately having miserable gits point out what is wrong is the only way it does. 🙂
That said I am sorry he wrecked the car and glad he had taken the time to make sure it was built well enough that he was able to walk away from it with only minor injuries as it looks a nasty crash in the video.
Anonymous, You must be the driver? And yes, that cage is well built!!! Do you run in the South? Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi area?
Racersnut351 ur a dumb mother fucker.