In all honesty, you’re probably safer competing in SCCA Club Racing than you are driving on the average interstate highway. On the track, drivers around you have the proper training, you’re wearing a fire-resistant Nomex suit and a helmet, your car is fitted with things like a roll cage and a racing harness and none of your competitors are drunk, high or busily texting to their BFF. That said, driving at high speed still has an element of risk, and when things go bad at speed they do so quickly.
We’re labeling this video (found on Motor Authority) as NSFW, since the driver clearly curses when he realizes that he’s about to get up close and personal with the armco while carrying some serious speed following a front left tire failure. The impact is severe enough to throw the car in the air to a rather impressive altitude, before gravity takes over and the car sticks a landing on its roof.
Fortunately, the driver escaped the “giant washing machine of pain and violence” (to quote the co-driver of the Evo that crashed at Pikes Peak last summer) with only scrapes and bruises. If you need a reason to justify a roll cage in your daily driver, we’d say this video delivers.
Kurt Ernst has been passionate about automobiles and driving nearly his entire life. His early years were shaped working in the family service station, though his real passion was auto racing. After graduating from the University of Colorado, Kurt spent a year club racing with the Sports Car Club of America, before focusing on a business career in marketing and project management. Later, his passion for writing and the automotive hobby found him freelancing for a variety of automotive news sites, including Automotive Addicts and Motor Authority, where his work was syndicated and appeared in several national publications. Recognized as an expert in the automotive field, Kurt joined Hemmings Motor News as an Associate Editor in 2013, and in the years since has progressed to Editor, Hemmings Daily; Managing Editor for Hemmings Motor News, Hemmings Classic Car, Hemmings Muscle Machines, and the Hemmings Daily; and now, Managing Editor, Hemmings Auctions. Kurt was instrumental in organizing the Hemmings Motor News Concours d’Elegance from 2013-2019, and has served as a judge at this event and The Vintage Racing Stable Concours d’Elegance. A Skip Barber Racing School graduate and prolific writer, Ernst is also skilled in copyediting, project management, brand development, and public relations.
