viper exchange burns to the ground ten minutes in to the 12 hours of sebring

[mrbob]

Sad st see
We are down to two cars team srt. . Jon b can you add to this . Iam on turn eleven . Any photos.

 

[Mopar Steve]

Just watched on tv. Very sad to see. Possible fuel?

 

[Torquemonster06]

Glad nobody was hurt. Sorry to see, they had such a great car this weekend.

 

[S2kap2]

Very Scary!

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[flatblack]

http://youtu.be/6U4nbMbHz_E

Very sad to watch

 

[VIPER GTSR 91]

http://youtu.be/6U4nbMbHz_E

Very sad to watch

Posted the same on that other Viper site just like this and got gigged since I did not embed it? Guess the search police are now web police. This will dig deep in Ben's pockets and he may have to wait to get another one built to continue the series. Feel bad for them.

 

[FrankBarba]

Since he is the only Privateer in this series maybe we can take a collection up for Ben. What do you think......

 

[AZTVR]

Since he is the only Privateer in this series maybe we can take a collection up for Ben. What do you think......

Kind of like the opposite of "alms to the poor" ?

 

[46hemi]

Man that's terrible. I can't imagine how the driver felt.

 

[Bobpantax]

As shocking as it was to see the brief clip of the fire and the remains of the car ( it was on Fox Sports), it was a relief to see Ben walk away uninjured. Whatever quick release mechanism he had on his harness worked and the safety clothing protected him.

 

[ROCKET62]

Amazing how quick that went up in flames.

 

[bluesrt]

I would think one would have insurance on a car that much money?

 

[TrackAire]

Is the car that Ben was driving the one being sold by Dodge for around $450K?

If so, I wonder if other units they have built are prone to the same potential issue due to a manufacturing or assembly flaw. Ben is lucky to not get seriously burned as he was standing in the fuel fire...very scary situation.

George

 

[AZTVR]

Is the car that Ben was driving the one being sold by Dodge for around $450K?

If so, I wonder if other units they have built are prone to the same potential issue due to a manufacturing or assembly flaw

Or, it could be as simple as someone on the race team forgot to screw down a fitting that they were working on since the last practice.
I'm sure that they will be trying to figure out what the root cause was.

 

[Paul Hawker]

According to Bernie the damage was not near as great as you would expect from the video. The smoke and fire was not from fuel, but from burning carbon fiber. Wiring loom is toast, but the chassis engine, tranny, brakes, etc. should be good to go again with some extensive work. He plans to get it back on the track.

 

[TrackAire]

I think I see an SRT decal on the rear wing that might be salvageable....

http://www.motorsport.com/tusc/phot...iper-gt3-r-1674726/?i=158&id=1674726&sz=1&s=2

http://www.motorsport.com/tusc/phot...-r-ben-keating-jeroen-bleekemolen-se-1673806/

When watching the video during the race, I do believe it had something to do with fuel because as the car came to a stop a trail of fuel behind the car ignited for a brief instant. What I'd like to know is why the lights were still on during the fire?....was the external kill switch not accessible due to the flames/heat/smoke? Maybe the fuel pump was running the entire time feeding fuel and trying to fight the fire was a no win situation.

Overall this is a very scary situation and a good lesson for us that track our cars. Once the car starts on fire, get the hell out because you're not going to be able to do anything to minimize the damage....you'll only subject yourself to possible injury, etc.

George