Thank God for a good safety crew…
OMG… i am sitting here crying. Fires in race cars is about the worse thing i can think of. it makes me physically ill to see a driver go through that kind of fear and pain. that was horrible. Who is the driver? is he ok? Eastbay deserves credit for a speedy safety crew and the driver for having a good firesuit etc. that was terrifying … please give more information as to the drivers condition.
Thank you…
carolwicks aka OZZIE
Let me say that happened right in front of me. I threw my camera down and that is me in the blue, white, and gold jacket. You are right, that was a very scary moment and I just couldn’t stand there and get pictures with him engulfed in flames. He is Michael Parent of Grandby, Quebec. He did have some burns on his hands and his neck and was transported to the hospital. He wasn’t wearing a hood under the helmet and the flames went right up there. I don’t know anything else. I spent over 30 years in emergency services as a volunteer and that instinct took over in this situation. Glad I was there to help. If you notice my camera got doused in foam, water, and mud and unfortunately isn’t working too well right now.
It seemed like it took them a while for anyone to get there with a fire extinguisher. There should be a extinguisher next to every official on the track.
I can’t say I disagree with having a fire extinguisher at all corners but you must give East Bay a lot of credit. They had personnel spraying him with foam in about 15 seconds. It may seem like a long time, when you’re there or watching, but 15 seconds is pretty damn good time.
How did the fire get started? From the video I saw, only he was on fire not the car.
Cara, I don’t know how the fire started. I can only speculate that a fuel line or something started spaying fuel and ignited. There was a lot of fire in the cockpit initially. I think fuel soaked into the firesuit and that’s what the video shows burning.
That is one of the reasons that they don’t like Fuel lines run through cockpit areas… Thankfully he is ok… And good pull Winger… Micheal How is everything going bud…
Have a great day all…
Kudos Winger, that takes cajones to jump in like that, although until he got unstrapped there wasnt much you could do without any gear. Nice grab though getting him out. All things considered that dude was lucky.
I was sitting in the stands in amazement. It was scary to watch especially after reading Doug Wolfgang’s book. Just to put Wolfgang’s fire in perspective, he was in the car for 8 minutes before they got him out. Saturday night’s fire seemed like an eternity but it was nothing compared to Wolfgang’s fire…Plus the Kevin Goebrecht fire at Volusia years ago was very scary. The car went high up in the air, came down hard and burst into flames. Goebrecht scrabbled out of the car and sat on the guardrail as the car burned. Seemed like 2 minutes passed before they got to the car to start putting the fire out.
On a side note, what about the mini sprint driver who lost his helmet in the B-Main flip. The helmet rolled down the turn as the car came to a rest in the middle of turns 1 & 2. Seems the kid didn’t tighten the strap before he went out to race. That’s someone who doesn’t understand safety and is a danger to other drivers.