Drag racing videographers are no doubt a fearless breed. While spectators and even the still photographers around them are hitting the dirt, these brazen individuals stand strong in the line of danger and keep the cameras rolling to deliver incredible footage that can only be had by standing their ground. As they risk life and limb for that epic crash footage, some might consider them crazy, perhaps suicidal, but these folks will tell you, it’s just what they do. And it’s what the videographer in this clip shared with us by Dragzine reader Alan Ginter was doing when he nearly had his head taken off by the flying hood from a race car that crashed at speed RIGHT in front of him.

This video was filmed by Ginter from the grandstands at the Milan Dragway last weekend as Payso Productions hosted their Detroit vs. Chicago: Motor City Mayhem outlaw street car and grudge racing event at the Michigan facility as this flamed small block nitrous Fox body took on a sharp looking Chevy Malibu. As the Mustang passed the 1/8-mile mark, the driver lost control and headed toward the centerline before the car snapped back across the lane hard into the concrete guardrail — and directly into the shooting position of a particularly brave video guy.

The blunt impact by the Mustang sends the hood flying off the car like a saucer, headed directly for the videographers head. If you look closely, you’ll see him pull a Matrix move as he leans his upper body away from the flying projectile that’s on a beeline for him. The Mustang, after striking the wall the first time, careened back across the track and hit the opposite wall still carrying quite a bit of speed.

According to Ginter, the driver of the Mustang was unconscious when safety personnel arrived and he was transported by ambulance for observation at a nearby hospital. Meanwhile, the uninjured videographer, after cleaning his shorts and checking to make sure his head and all of his limbs were still intact (okay, we made that part up), reportedly returned to duty behind the camera for the remainder of the day.