This has to be every stock car racer’s nightmare. Racing at night, powering off of a corner and then looking up to see a competitor dead in the water, sitting right in your line. With nowhere to go and nothing to do, the driver wallops the dead duck and then gets bashed a few times himself, his car bursting into flames as the fuel lines were surely ruptured after the severity of the second impact.
In the description under this video on YouTube, the poster states that the yellow flag had not been thrown yet, that’s why he was still running at full tilt. You can see him come off the corner and recognize the situation. He does the best he can and actually appears to swerve the car at the wall to minimize the impact on the other driver, which still had to have been massive. Imagine being the guy in the other car and watching with wide eyes as this whole mess comes straight at you!
One of the other things to pay attention to in this video is the firewall of the car after the engine compartment becomes a volcano. You can see that the car was obviously stripped for racing, but lots of the holes in the firewall are still there and the fire quickly begins licking through them. We have a friend here at BS who experienced a similar situation in a race car at high speed and those holes in the firewall, aided by wind, burned him bad enough to cause permanent scarring on lots of his body. No matter what type of racing you are doing, take the time to weld up those small holes! It can make all the difference when the dookie hits the fan!
Press play and watch this mess unfold!
1. He wasn’t looking far enough ahead.
2. There appeared to be plenty of room to get by on the inside.
3. Love the Five-panel Wink mirror.
4. How about that flimsy”cheater” hood that magically bows up for cowl induction at speed? Somehow I suspect that’s not “rulebook approved.”
5. The leasurely fire crew reminded me of a certain Sprint Car Hall-of-Fame promoter (who shall remain nameless).
He booked some idiot with a jet-powered ATV for a show during track prep between the heats and the main features at a 3/8-mile dirt bullring. Part of Jet-ATV’s act was to hit the afterburner next to a junk car for some instant pyro fun.
The crowd loved it as the safety crew struggled to put out the smokey blaze. When asked what he thought of the crowd-pleasing show, the grizzled promoter only said “@%$&! Now I’ve got to refill TWO fire extinguishers! Ya know how much that costs . . . .”
He definitely wasn’t looking far enough into the distance because he was in the throttle long after the dead car could be seen. The fact that two cars passed him right after the hit showed he was looking in the mirror at them instead of racing his own car like he should have been.