With hundreds of race cars running on the ragged edge, you’re bound to have some mishaps, and last week’s Lights Out 9 at South Georgia Motorsports Park certainly had that. Perhaps the most gut-wrenching among them was this incident that occurred during Friday’s shakedown runs for the Small-Block No-Time Shootout, simply due to the fact that everyone in attendance could see it coming and could only cringe and watch it unfold.

South Carolina racer DJ McCain, behind the wheel of his V8-powered Datsun known as “Bowser”, was running in the right lane, opposite of Orlando Florida’s Matt Schlein in his “Icy Hot” Fox body Mustang. At the flash of the green, McCain launched his way into a photo-worthy wheelstand — mid-flight, he slapped the loud-pedal to extend his hang-time and soften the landing, ultimately crashing to earth in a shower of sparks, however. All the while, Schlein is sitting at the starting line on the transbrake, unaware that he and McCain are destined to occupy the same piece of real estate.

Schlein, trailing McCain by several bus-lengths, simply has nowhere to go as McCain’s Datsun, damaged from its collision with the pavement, drifts across the centerline into his lane. Schlein, taking evasive action, hooks his Mustang nose-first into the wall, doing extensive damage to his sleek machine.

Fortunately, both drivers emerged unharmed from the freak incident — in which they never fully made contact — which was an expensive case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.