Blencowe survives burning race car at Snetterton

Alan Blencowe escaped miraculously from his burning racecar at Snetterton last weekend after a freak fire started in the engine bay of his Honda Civic Type-R race car.

Alan was due to race at Snetterton last weekend in the latest round of the Britcar Production S1 Championship, but due to the extent of the fire in his car meant that the team were unable to repair the damage in time to compete.

"As I exited from Russell (Bend), I was suddenly overcome with strong black smoke in the car and the car engine died. Unable to see anything at all I struggled to open my car door and at this point I had flames licking at me through the dashboard and I knew I had to get out of the car - quickly."

"As the car started to slow down the whole engine bay went up into flames and I snapped open my harness and tore at the safety cage trying to pull myself out of the burning car. The heat and smoke was so intense I couldn’t believe it was happening!"

From the pit lane the team and fire marshals rushed forward and horror struck as the flames rose higher and it was clear that Alan was struggling to free himself from the burning car. As the fire crews were reaching him Alan tumbled hard onto the circuit which at this point was still LIVE and the burning car continued to roll.

"My left foot was stuck under the foot box of my car and I was struggling to undo my radio connection and I was desperate to try and get away from the car as I didn’t know if it was about to blow completely."

PRAISE: "I have to firstly praise the quick actions of my race team, Synchro Motorsport and the marshals at Snetterton for attending to my car and secondly to the safety extinguishers in the engine bay of my car - without these I hate to think what the extent of the fire would have been and it saved my life."

The car has now gone back to the factory for the team to source the fault in the engine bay that caused the fire and to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

For further information about Alan Blencowe or Production PS1 please contact:
Amanda Dennant, Marketing Director
E: amanda@alanblencoweracing.com   T: 07766 823824
www.alanblencoweracing.com