With the proliferation of cell phones that shoot pretty decent video quality and widespread cell service that allows almost instantaneous sharing on social media and video sharing sites, it’s really rare for a video to come along that truly leaves us saying, “never seen that before.”
Details are still scarce at the moment, but we know these two hot-rodders are competing in the Colorado Street Outlaws event, held on the unprepped pit road at Pikes Peak International Raceway in Fountain, Colo. Even though both of these show-quality Chevys lay down nice, smoky burnouts, it’s pretty clear from the hit of the throttle that traction is elusive. The dark-colored Camaro in the far lane, a clean second-Gen of the split bumper variety, loses traction immediately, though the diehard driver makes every effort possible to stay in the throttle and out in front of the ill-fated 1955 Chevy in the near lane.
Said Fifty-Five, being driven by Kelly Harvey, appears to launch a bit more conservatively, but once he rolls hard into the throttle a second or two into the race, he also finds his gorgeous ride fighting to stay stuck to the racing surface. There’s some speculation in the comments (language/trolling warning, as this is YouTube after all) that the driver of the ’55 got into trouble because he steered away from the slip-sliding Camaro, and that certainly may have been the case as the F-Body does make a hard move toward the centerline as the ’55 begins to lose control.
Regardless of the reason, about halfway own the marked eighth-mile course, the heavy Chevy’s tires decide to end the fun and kick the rear end out, which begins a series of barrel rolls that rivals the most cringe-worthy of stock car crashes — the battered ride coming to rest at the far end of the pit road. It’s at this point that even the most casual of observers will stare or gasp in astonishment as they observe the previously mentioned “Never seen that before” moment.
As the tumbling hot rod comes to a rest, Havey is laying atop the dash with his legs on the hood, torso remaining inside the cockpit. With no great sense of urgency, Kelly shuffles himself back into the drivers compartment and exits through the door, walking quite gingerly toward the safety crew which had scrambled quickly to his aid.
Harvey was quoted as saying, “My seat belts were not mounted properly and pulled through the floor of the car. I’m grateful to the staff and safety crew at PPIR for such a rapid response to my situation.”
That’s right folks… Harvey barrel rolls his car four full revolutions, ends up going through the windshield legs first, comes to rest laying on the hood, and walks away. Suffice it to say, someone was definitely watching over him on this day!