During a recent drag race at the Pikes Peak International Raceway, a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air squared off against a fiery Chevy Camaro in an epic drag race. Only, things turned sour quick.
Off of the line, the Camaro began to list dangerously right and left before finally stabilizing and speeding through the finish. These early wild movements, however, were disrupting enough to throw the Chevy Bel Air off-kilter, as it swerved away from the Camaro in an attempt to avoid a collision.
Unfortunately, trying to avoid a collision only caused the Bel Air into a one man crash after driver Kelly Harvey tried to over-correct, causing the vehicle to roll four times before flipping up and sliding on its nose.
Harvey says, “I don’t know [what happened], it just went a little bit too far, a little too much, a little too fast on me. I couldn’t correct it.”
Immediately, it was apparent that the car was wrecked, but what about Harvey? Was he alive?
After the carnage settled, onlookers gasped as they saw the Harvey’s legs jutting out from the front windshield in what looked like a life threatening accident. After a few seconds, though, Harvey miraculously pulled himself away from the wreck before being attended to by the on-site safety crew.
“I just remembered bouncing in the car, I don’t remember how soon, I came loose, I was bouncing around,” Harvey said after the race. “I knew my feet were banging around, but I didn’t know which part of the car, where they were.”
“I felt fluid on me, I didn’t know, if it was gasoline. I didn’t know if there was gonna be a fire. I just knew I had to get out of there.”
Fortunately, Harvey suffered no serious injuries. The car that actually belonged to his wife, however, was totaled.
“I though he was lying,” Erin Harvey said and laughed. “I was like, not funny! Second thought was I really couldn’t believe it. He’s raced his whole life. I though, maybe a little accident, but not to the magnitude it was.”
4Wheel Online Blog - Automotive News 