Smoked!

[gabkwong]

You can see smoke coming out his helmet!

[ken o]

What the? Where were the EMTs?

[blackzx3_13]

What the? Where were the EMTs?

The driver in that video, Tetsuya Oto, survived with bad burns. His racing career was ended. He successfully sued the race organizers for lack of preparation, due to how delayed the response was. The first person to get to him was another driver who stopped and pulled out the fire extinguisher from his own car.

[JuanoTejano]

^Jeez completely justified in suing their pants off. Hope he got enough to retire comfortably but that wouldn't help not being able to race again.

[gabkwong]

Does he keep his eyes and face? It looked like his face shield was burnt! By the way, does those expensive race helmet is fire proof down to the face shield?

[Majik]

Yeah the liner is fire proof, and he was probably wearing a balaclava. But if you are engulfed like that the flames will still burn your face, even if the helmet itself doesnt catch fire.

[blackzx3_13]

The visor actually melted to his face, but he had reconstructive surgery. The people he sued claimed he didnt have on a balaclava, but Ota says he had one on.

[Magma]

Wow, although I love the head shake at he 2:00 minute mark

[Nexus Flux]

Seen this a couple of years ago, I couldn't believe it then, and I'm still amazed at Tetsuya's drive and determination when he is trying to get up and take his helmet off.

[Ataim]

Wow that was bad. I cannot believe that they would race in such poor visibility. My motto has and always will be never drive faster than you can stop. Did any of the cars have fuel cells? You cannot accept a fuel cell to survive every hit but DAMN.

[MadMerv]

Racing in that kind of conditions is exectly why I quit going to the Runoffs after 1999. We had a similar, but not nearly as violent, crash coming out of turn one in light rain. The front couple of cars could see, but the further you were in th pack, the less you could see until visibility was ZERO! Several front runners got together and parts were strawn everywhere. One Miata was sideways in the middle of the track, but no one could see him. He got t-boned (passenger side luckily). It was a horendous site coming up on it. Thank goodeness we had communications and were down to a crawl by then, far back in the field. Luckily, no fire thanks to the placement of the gas tank on Miatas. I will never race like that again unless I'm in the first two or three rows.