It can be very easy at times to forget that not all forms of motor racing come neatly packaged.
Lurk through the wider world of motorsport and it is not too difficult to source small localised events where not every driver is a slick machine, trying to push their career forward.
Believe it or not, there are people in the real world that actually like to have fun… (or so I’m told.)
Last week at the 2nd Annual Stock Car Nationals at Oklahoma Sports Park, drivers Terry Muskratt, Brian Wolfe and Steve Little collided during the feature event, with Muskratt taking the brunt of carnage.
Pinballing hard between the out of control machinery and the concrete retaining wall, the trio came to a stop in the middle of the dirt track, with Muskratt’s stock car upside down and in flames. While fire marshal’s – minus fire protective clothing – attempted to tend to the burning car, reigning Nationals Champion, Kip Hughes, pulled over to lend assistance.
The 27-year-old Hughes ripped off the inner netting that lines the window space and then at the door of Muskratt’s car, eventually pulling the driver out of the wreck and to safety.
It was a remarkable feat by the exhausted Hughes, whose own father suffered serious burns in a similar accident twenty years ago.
So used to the clinical features presented by modern state-of-the-art circuits, the accident went some way to displaying how far behind local circuits can be in terms of safety measures.
Irrespective of the current state of the economy, there is no excuse for marshal’s not wearing firesuits – that kind of occurrence belongs back in the 1970’s.
[Not for the squeamish]
