Flames engulfed the car driven by Mike Learn. Although he never had a fire in 38 years of racing, he automatically went into survival mode.
The fire started while running second with four laps to go in the Tri State Pro Stock Challenge feature at Antioch Speedway last Saturday night.
“I was completely covered in flames — all sides of me — all I saw was fire,” Learn, of Petaluma, California, said. “I reached over to hit the kill switch and pull the fire suppression lever at the same time. The system put the fire out quickly. Most racers only run two nozzles — I had three. One faced the engine, one was on me, and one faced the fuel cell.”
Learn used a fire suppression system from Firebottle that sprays DuPont FE-36 from those three nozzles.
“When I came to a stop, something was still burning in the tunnel,” said Learn. “The track crew was there and got it out. The only place that wasn’t covered by the nozzles was the area behind the rear nozzle. The battery was scorched and [its] cables burned. Everything in the cockpit was good — there was no fire damage and I wasn’t burned.”
Learn wore a new Velocita fire suit, with Velocita gloves and RaceQuip shoes. He used a Simpson Shark helmet, with a head sock underneath.
“It was 96 degrees that night and I opted not to wear my fire-retardant underwear,” Learn said. “I felt the double-layer fire suit would give me the protection I needed.”
Later on, Mike Learn inspected his car to find the cause of the fire. He found an oil line running from behind the engine to an oil cooler had blown off, sending oil toward the hot headers, which ignited the oil. As far as any other damage, the fire scorched the tunnel and Learn plans to replace burnt wiring.
“The fire was scary for a moment, but everything did its job like it was supposed to,” said Learn. “From the fire suppression system to my clothing and helmet to the track crew being there in a moment, a tragedy was averted.”
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.
