It was speedway night last Saturday night. Despite the fact that the man in the street perceives a motorsport spectator as being only interested in the crashes, he is completely wrong. However, having said that, crashes do happen and a big one happened last Saturday night at Nowra.
In the second heat for the Compact Speedcars, Steven Hawksworth rode the back wheel of the car of Adam Henry’s car. Such accidents are far more likely to happen in open wheel racing than they are in sedans for obvious reasons. The result was that the #17 car got airborne, flew right to the level of the top of the catch fence, becoming entangled there, hanging there for what seemed like an eternity before crashing back down onto the track.
Maximum Action Photography’s Luke Whitehead was the man on the spot and he recorded the whole sequence the link to which is published below.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.783057408396889.1073741961.125155617520408&type=1
You do not have to be a Facebook member to see the album.
Crash crew were on the scene within seconds (Nowra’s crash crew is the best) and medical intervention arrived at the same time. Amazingly, after a few seconds of assessment, Hawksworth took off his harness, climbed unaided out through the top of the roll cage and walked away without assistance. FIV staff could be seen holding up 3 fingers and asking him how many he could see before he took off his HANS device, his helmet and balaclava and climbed into the recovery vehicle for a lift back to the pits. The roar of relief and the cheering from the crowd echoed right around the track.
The violence of the accident is clear from the still series. There is also a video clip made by Luke’s dad, Mark, that shows what happened and how quickly it was all over. It also shows just how close the car came to clearing the catch fence some 6 metres high, altogether.
Amazingly, Steven reported on Sunday morning that he was a bit sore, but OK.
My point? The amazingly high quality of safety gear that is now mandatory in all forms of motorsports.
Next time you hear someone complaining about how much safety gear costs….