Scheckter suffers pit fire
IRL IndyCar Series frontrunner Tomas Scheckter has been involved in a major pit fire at the Belterra Casino Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway in his Panther Racing Dallara-Chevrolet
Scheckter had just taken the lead when he pitted, but in his haste to leave he floored the throttle with the fuel hose still attached, causing a major fuel spill and had to jump out of the car, clearly on fire. His team were all soaked in fuel, but fortunately it did not ignite and there were no other injuries.
"I depressed my clutch completely, but it started slipping," explained Scheckter. "They said 'don't go' but the car was creeping all the time. I think something happened with the hydraulics, so my crew chief told me to go and I went. I saw the fuel hose was broken in my mirrors, but then I had trouble breathing, it was like breathing acid or something. I just jumped out to make sure I was okay."
Following a trip to the infield care centre, Scheckter was given a clean bill of health.
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