Veteran Pro Street and Pro Modified racer Chris Rini was injured Sunday in a crash during eliminations at the NMCA Muscle Car Mayhem event at the Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida. Rini, a former champion of the series, was racing alongside eventual winner Ray Commisso in the second round of Xtreme Pro Mod eliminations when his ATI Performance Products-backed ’69 Camaro got loose and struck both retaining walls. Rini was alert and communicating with track and medical officials and was airlifted to a local hospital for treatment of injuries to his ribs, lungs, and knee.

He was later reported, by the NMCA’s Rollie Miller and BMP’s Alan Chervitz, to have incurred multiple broken ribs, a bruised lung, and a severely bruised knee. He later confirmed his condition via social media, sharing: Thank you everyone for the Calls, text and post. I am in recovery an I am very sore. All the ribs on my left side are broken except for one and my knee is pretty banged up. My left side is sore from my ankle to my shoulder but it could have worse. I’m here for another day or so depending on the what the doctors opinion is of my condition. Thank god all the safety equipment worked, did its job and Jerry Bickel race cars built me a safe car. The safety safari and the crew from NMCA was there right away after the car came to a stop. Again thanks for everyone’s concern.

Rini’s accident is another setback in what has been a difficult offseason for the New York racer. Just before Christmas, he was severely injured in a workplace accident, when he was pinned underneath a vehicle that he was helping load onto a wrecker. That incident left him with a broken shoulder blade, five broken ribs, and a punctured lung.

Adding insult to injury, Rini was debuting a brand new Jerry Bickel Race Cars-built Camaro at Bradenton.

Our best wishes go out to Rini on a swift recovery and return to racing.