When a fuel injector line broke and the engine backfired, Brock Berreth found himself surrounded by flames. The incident occurred during the A Class C-feature during the Tulsa Shootout in Oklahoma.
Berreth has raced since 2008. His father, Chris, owns CB Performance, which builds engines. Berreth took a break to attend school from 2011 to 2015, and then returned to the sport to drive a house car for Intruder Chassis.
“I’d had an electrical fire once, but this was the first time I was engulfed in flames,” Berreth, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, said. “It is definitely something I would not want to happen again.”
The flames burned with an atypical tint of purple.
“The Expo makes us run their own special blend of fuel to reduce fumes within the building,” said Berreth. “Everyone said it definitely was a different type of flame that we hadn’t seen before. I thought I blew an engine.”
Fortunately, Berreth was prepared for the fire. He wore a Bell RS7 helmet, K1 RaceGear suit, K1 RaceGear gloves, and Sabelt shoes.
“I had a burn on my hip — nothing deep or major,” Berreth said. “It was like a bad sunburn. Luckily, there were no blisters.”
He remains appreciative that his injuries weren’t more serious. After the fire, Berreth’s team repaired the fuel injector line and continued racing. Later in the event, he worked his way into the non-wing B-feature.
“I have to give special thanks to the Tulsa Shootout safety crew,” Berreth said. “From the start of the fire to the beginning of my extraction was just eight seconds. They were on top of me [which] prevented more serious burns.”
Brock Berreth has a busy 2023 season ahead. He works full-time for open-wheel racer Jonathan Beason. When not helping Beason, Berreth plans to race 600 sprints at Port City Raceway in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and other major events outside his home area.
Photography Credit: John Lee, and you can view more of his work here.
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.
