Drift Car Catches Fire, Extinguisher Doesn’t Help
Brodie Maher, a professional driver, faces a motorsports enthusiast’s nightmare when his drift car catches fire on track.
Perhaps the biggest nightmare for those of us who spend any time behind the wheel of a car on track is that car spontaneously bursting into flames. We can only imagine that the time from seeing flames to getting the car safely stopped must feel like an eternity. In this case, this drift car catches fire. Unfortunately, though the driver is prepared with an extinguisher, it doesn’t do much.
This unfortunate incident happened to Australian pro drifter Brodie Maher. He posted the clip to his Instagram account, and it’s a terrifying reminder of how quickly things can go bad. Fortunately, he made it out of the car okay. However, it doesn’t particularly get better from there.
Suddenly Engulfed in Flames, but Why?
While Maher was practicing at a recent D1NZ National Drifting Championship competition in New Zealand, his car suddenly lost power. According to his caption, a screw holding the fuel rail in backed out and allowed a massive fuel leak. Maher is seen limping the 1,000 horsepower S13 Nissan Silvia back to the pit area when his drift car catches fire.
Maher’s reaction was extremely quick. He stopped the car and quickly manages to get his fire extinguisher out. He can be seen attempting to contain the fire, but, unfortunately, his extinguisher doesn’t quite cut it. A fellow competitor pulls up and hands him his extinguisher, too. Eventually, the track’s safety team makes their way over, and the flames are finally put out.
Serious Damage Took the Car Out of the Competition
Maher says he and his team worked diligently to attempt to repair the car. Sadly, extensive damage to the car’s engine harness kept it from being repaired in time for qualifying. This didn’t keep him out of the competition, though. Instead, Maher qualified fourth in a borrowed car from a fellow competitor. He throws down in that borrowed car like a true sideways-driving action hero.
Ultimately, while this is a scary story, it could certainly have ended worse. The car is evidently repairable, and Brodie managed to get out of the car quickly enough to avoid serious injury.
Being able to qualify so high in someone else’s car is just the cherry on top of it all. Hopefully, the repairs necessary won’t be too extreme, and Brodie’s monstrous S13 will be back on the track for competition in no time.
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