When Daytona Hensley heard the track officials tell him on the radio, “Z4, your car is on fire,” he knew he had to bail from his race car.
The incident occurred last Saturday during the first SCDRA B-main of the Halloween Havoc event at Midway Speedway in Crooksville, Ohio. Right after Hensley heard of the fire, he stopped his car in the middle of turns one and two. He then quickly exited the car.
“The official saved my life,” Hensley, 18, of Springfield, Ohio, said. “My car stalled and I tried to restart it. I didn’t know it [wouldn’t restart since it] wasn’t getting fuel because of a fuel tank leak.”
As Hensley attempted to restart the car, it backfired, igniting the gasoline spilling from his fuel tank.
“I looked back and saw I left a trail of fire on the track, burning up to my stopped car,” said Hensley. “So, I just walked away and waved to the crowd to let them know I was okay.”
Hensley said a rough racetrack may have contributed to his fire. A skid plate covering the OEM fuel tank — mandated by some tracks and series, but not the SCDRA — broke loose, cutting a six-inch slice into the tank.
Hensley prepared for the possibility of fire. He wore a three-layer fire suit, shoes, and gloves, which came from Allstar Performance.
“Remarkably, the car burned up in the front and rear, but not in the driver’s compartment — the wires weren’t even melted,” Hensley’s father, Christopher, said. “So, I’ll bet that we’ll need two weeks, and we’ll have that car like new for the next big SCDRA event.”
While Daytona Hensley certainly doesn’t want to encounter another fire again, he did see a positive to it.
“The fire warmed me up on a cold night,” said Hensley. “I told my dad I wish he brought the marshmallows over before they put it out.”
Outside Groove Note of Transparency: We clarified who mandates a skid plate covering stock fuel tanks (2020-11-04).
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
