American Spirit Team Johansson had a
huge scare during the final round of pit stops when a fire broke out in Ryan
Hunter-Reay's pit
source: cart.com The American rookie was waved out of his pit but a problem occurred where the fuel hose enters the monocoque and the mechanism didn't release. Hunter-Reay stopped, but the stretched hose split and the remaining contents of the pit lane fuel tank rapidly spilled out and ignited. A small army of safety officials and team members threw buckets of water on the blazing Reynard while Hunter-Reay struggled to get out. No one required medical attention after the incident. " I was told verbally and motioned to go, so I did," Hunter-Reay recalled. "The next thing I knew, I felt a massive heat wave coming over me and realized I was on fire. We think there was something wrong with the redhead (fueling apparatus). "The Sparco equipment did a great job for me today. I was in the car with everything around me on fire, including me for about 10 - 15 seconds and I have no burns anywhere and neither does anyone on my crew." Hunter-Reay continues to show strong form in his rookie season despite being saddled with the unfashionable Reynard chassis. "This is a huge disappointment because we had very consistent race going today, I forced a couple of experienced drivers into mistakes and we definitely would have walked out of here with some points," he said. "We fought the car all weekend and it's been frustrating, but we can chalk it up to a learning experience and turn our focus to my home race in Miami, which I am really looking forward to."
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