Motorsport: Horror crash 'out of the way'

Chris van der Drift says he does not blame French competitor Julien Jousse for his crash last weekend. Photo / Paul Estcourt

New Zealander Chris van der Drift has joined an elite club of motor racing drivers who have launched their cars into space at over 250km/h.

The Kiwi-born racing driver clipped the back of Frenchman Julien Jousse's car at Brands Hatch during a Superleague race last weekend. His car rocketed into the air, smashing into the bridge railing at Pilgrims Drop before crashing back to earth in a ball of fire.

Before crashing on to the track, the car spun through the air, disintegrating as it is designed to do, with Van der Drift enclosed in the safety cell (tub) separate from the engine and gearbox.

Fortunately, the flames extinguished as quickly as they had ignited but van der Drift was not so lucky.

He sustained a broken right ankle and right little finger, fractured shoulder blade, two broken ribs and a severely damaged left index finger.

His ankle was operated on after the crash and, after two nights in Dartford hospital, he was moved to Northampton where specialists would look at the damaged index finger.

"When it first happened I obviously didn't see how big it was," said van der Drift. "I thought I had just bounced off the wall and it wasn't until I saw the video that I realised how big a shunt it was.

"I don't really crash that much and that accident is for sure the biggest crash I've ever had. I'm glad I've got that out of the way and can now concentrate on getting back racing."

The video footage doesn't conclusively lay blame in one direction although Jousse can be seen moving his car across the track twice. However, van der Drift is at pains to make it clear he doesn't blame the Frenchman for the accident.

"I was catching him [Jousse] up quite fast and was on a roll. I didn't know what position I was in at the time because in the first race I had a big brake failure and could only finish seventh.

"The team said I had to get as far up the field in the second race to try and get into the super final. The car was really good and I was going like crazy. As I closed on him I was committed as I had used the push-to-pass to pass him and had the momentum.

"He moved once and I knew it was going to be pretty tight but he moved again and it was all over."

It's too early to say when van der Drift will be back behind the wheel and, as the Superleague season is quite long, it's not beyond the realms of possibility he may be back towards the end of the 12-round series. The last race is in Spain, on October 23-24.

"I have no real idea how soon I'll be back as it's early days. I have always healed quickly in the past so I want to be back in the car quite quickly. I want to be back in the car by the end of the season.

"After the disaster of last year it's been really good to get results this year and show people how fast I am and I want to keep the momentum going." The Superleague is a series in which 18 European soccer teams are represented by drivers in open-wheel race cars similar to F1 cars (750bhp V-12 engines) and is in season two.

Some of the clubs involved include Olympiacos (van der Drift's team, where he lies fourth having earned $600,000 so far this season) AC Milan, AS Roma, Atletico de Madrid, FC Porto, Liverpool FC, Tottenham Hotspur and PSV Eindhoven.

TOUGH CUSTOMER
* 2009: A1GP Team New Zealand and World Series by Renault
* 2008: Formula Master champion
* 2007: Second International Formula Master
* 2006: Second Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup
* 2006: European Rookie champion Eurocup and North European
* 2004: ADAC Formula BMW champion
* 2002: New Zealand Karting championship