Crash track safe, says race chief

John Bowe's Ford crashes into the safety barrier at Pukekohe during the first V8 Supercars race yesterday. Picture / Paul Nathan

Inquiries are under way into two high-speed crashes at the Pukekohe race track at the weekend.

The sport's governing body, Motorsport New Zealand, defended the track's safety standards for cars travelling at more than 200km/h despite injuries to a trackside photographer yesterday, the second accident in two days.

Scott Wensley, an Australian, received a broken leg when a car driven by John Bowe ploughed into the barrier in front of him. The barrier buckled and a section of post flew off and hit the photographer's left leg.

This came after Saturday's accident when spectators were hit by wreckage but not injured when an out-of-control car driven by Aucklander Dean Fulford flipped over a safety fence and landed close to the crowd.

Motorsport NZ president Steven Kennedy said inquiries had begun into both crashes.

"Every incident that involves harm to anybody or a major incident is inspected and reported on automatically. The reports are done immediately and ... will head off to Wellington [today], and from that any information that we need to send off to our parent body [FIA, the International Automobile Federation] in Paris will be done straight away."

Mr Kennedy said he was completely happy with safety standards at Pukekohe and safety work carried out after the crashes.

"The [spectators] are exactly where they were [on Saturday] ... The barrier fencing that was damaged was completely restored. That's all we can do."

He said crashes were a fact of life when powerful cars were racing fast around a track. "What's being tested here is the laws of physics."

The safety barrier struck in yesterday's accident had distorted, which was not unusual, said Mr Kennedy.

"It was certainly unfortunate that a piece of wood broke off the post. That's a freak situation."

The barrier had been replaced after a major crash during the Supercar event last April. Mr Kennedy said the barrier had been repaired to international standards.

"All those posts were brand new, tanalised posts. And they were buried at least 1.7m in the ground."

Mr Kennedy said there were no concerns about the barrier construction. "At the end of the day, the systems worked. It's just the law of physics. You get 200km/h vehicles aiming with 1.5 tonnes at a post, it's going to move.

"We don't want anyone to be hurt but it will happen occasionally."

Supercars winner Mark Skaife last night also defended safety standards at Pukekohe. Speaking at a post-race press conference, he said drivers raced there knowing it was not "a state of the art" facility.

"There's no race track that's perfectly safe," he said. "Who could ever predict a car would do that down the main straight? Those things happen in motor racing sometimes."

Skaife said he and other drivers knew Pukekohe was not a "brand new" track, but he would continue to race there. "You could be critical of it ... but I have got no problem with it. If the place was too dangerous, we would have our hands up saying 'We are not driving'."

Bowe said no other car was involved when his throttle stuck open. He was not hurt but the Ford was badly damaged. Repairs to the barriers took almost an hour.

Herald photographer Greg Bowker was standing just metres from Wensley when the accident happened, about midday yesterday.

Bowker had been watching Bowe's car since it had been involved in an incident earlier in the race. He saw Bowe begin to lose control of the vehicle.

"There was lots of smoke, then another wheel locked up," he said.

In less than a second, the car was "filling the viewfinder of the camera".

Bowker and Wensley decided to "exit, stage right", when there was "this horrendous noise".

He turned around to see Wensley on the ground, and checked him as officials arrived.

"His leg didn't look too healthy."

Wensley had surgery last night in Middlemore Hospital for a broken leg, but would not comment on his accident.

Bowker said: "I was pretty shocked. I felt for my fellow photographer, but it was just some unfortunate thing.

"It was pure bad luck that Scott has now got a broken leg."

A pit crew member for Paeroa-based race team Richard's Motorsports witnessed the crash that injured Wensley, describing it as "bloody frightening".

"There was a hell of a noise, a metal noise."

He said his team's driver, Cameron McLean, would take the corner where the accident happened at about 220km/h and the V8 Supercars were likely to go even faster.

Spectators at Pukekohe were philosophical about safety standards at the track.

"The crashes are half the fun," said one racegoer, who did not wish to be named.

Others thought there was always a certain amount of risk in motor racing, but were still happy to go along.

Wayne Cattach, chief executive of V8 Supercars, extended his sympathy to Wensley.