Huge crash at Pukekohe

[Arai GP5]

Sports Tonight will show a huge truck racing crash from Pukekohe tonight.

The driver lost the rear coming out of the fast final corner coming onto the start/finish straight, then hit the armco on the inside of the track - smashing through it and rolling through a second barrier and ending up on the pitlane exit.

The driver (in a shell truck)- I missed his name - broke both legs, but will be okay.

Nasty stuff. That is one fast, bumpy and narrow piece of road.

If this is posted elsewhere - I apologise, and don't mind if someone deletes it.

[D.R.T.]

Yeah saw it this evening, pretty hefty wreck,, apparaently this was the 2nd crash for the truck. Hope for a speedy recovery for the driver

[Ozfords]

Funnily enough there was a serious NZV8 Tourer carsh last year at the same track aswell...

Ozfords

[Just Do It!]

Pukekohe has sadly had a few over the years.

Get a copy if you can of Steve Millen's book called Stillen and look at his one in there at Pukekohe in an Atlantic car. Its huge and has about 10 or 15 sequence still shots if I remember rightly.

The truck crash was a major and could easily have been the same outcome as poor young Michael McHugh's crash late last year.

The NZ Herald gave it huge mileage in their sports section - sadly more than if it was a great day of accident-free racing....

[Gaz170]

They said on tv the previous crash may have had something to do with this one, something broken in the chassis was mentioned.
Sure looked bad, I'm glad the driver is relatively ok.

[vipernz]

I heard the word about the possible connection to his previous crash and the repairs made, not being an expert in any form I will still say I doubt that to be the case, well at least hope that wouldn't be the case anyway. from what I saw, and I had a good view, standing right behind the fence opposite where the whole incident took place, Abernethy’s left wheel hit the grass as he came over John Deere Mountain, then skidded across the track and through two sets of armco and through into pit lane, landing just in front of the middle support for the over bridge, it really did look as though he was going to hit it and that would have been a real disaster. He was taken to hospital by ambulance and we had heard at first he broke a leg and arm, but other reports confirm he has two broken legs and was in a stable condition.

He got out of that one with his life that’s for sure.

[Warwick]

That corner would be the most dangerous of any corner on any NZ circuit,very fast and no runoff if it turns to custard.

Normally you end up in the armco on the outside though,one of the problems with the trucks is 5 tonne takes a lot of stopping when it goes wrong..

[Chappelli]

I have to say that after being part of the start crew at Pukekohe, and seeing what it did to the Armco (I was about 25m away from where the truck ended up)I'm REAL glad I don't do the start line anymore.

[Armco Bender]

Will be interesting to see if theres repercussions for truck racing/track safety following this accident.The way that thing punched through the armco,doesn't bear thinking about what would happen if one of those things got amongst the spectators.

[vortexo]

Any of you Kiwis can link us to a pic of this incident.