As technology has progressed over the last decade or so, a racer is able to record in-car video with ease. We’re sure that when this racer set out to make this pass, though, there was not a thought in his mind of how it might end.
From what we understand, this was one of the initial passes on this Corvette, made at Atmore Dragway in Alabama, but we haven’t been able to find much more information other than that. One of the things we noticed immediately upon playing the video is that the passenger-side window didn’t look quite right, and as the video progresses you’ll see why this becomes an issue.
As the racer is beginning his burnout, the window is flapping around, then his crewmember comes over and locks the door/window in. As the run begins, the window immediately comes unlatched. It takes a few seconds, but eventually all hell breaks loose, with the door eventually flinging wide open, as the driver goes through the traps – at which point the car also gets loose and begins fishtailing all over the track after clocking a 4.90 at 146 MPH.
At the same time, the hood scoop appears to come loose, then the front end, and the door slams closed before the entire body just disappears from view.
The carnage continues as the car turns left and enters a series of barrel rolls – we counted four – before coming to rest with the camera viewing sky and roll-cage.
The driver can be seen pulling off his helmet at the very end of the clip and talking to the safety crew, and according to the information provided with the video, was able to walk away from the crash with only a broken collarbone and some bruising.