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Steve Owen crashed into the rear of the stalled Holden Commodore of Karl Reindler at over 150km/h at the Barbagallo track in Perth, Australia during the start of the 2011 Australian V8 Touring Car Championship round.

Karl escaped with second degree burns on his hands.
This crash shows that even now, fire is a racing drivers worst enemy.

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Ryan Briscoe's violent crash at the Chicagoland Speedway September 2005, breaking both clavicles among other injuries. His car climbed over the top of Alex Barron's and flew into the catch fencing above the retaining wall, snapping in two.

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Some more Midget Car action...

1. Peter Cunneen at the Sidney Showground 1961.
2. Shane Hammond at the Thompson International Speedway 2008, fatal.
3. A crash at the Kalmazou Speedway 1983.
4. Henry Miller.
5. Lou Cicconi 1987.

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Duane C. 'Pancho' Carter, Jr became airborne in his March-Cosworth at practice for the Indy 500 in 1987 after spinning in turn three and rolling over, sailing 100 feet and crashing back onto the track.

USAC Midget Champion in 1972, and 1972 & 75 winner of the Hut 100. Winner of 23 Midget Car races. Carter won the 1974 and 1976 national USAC sprint car championships, finished 3rd in the 1982 Indy 500 and took pole in the 1985 race.

He finished 5th in the CART Indycar Championship in 1980 and finished 3rd in 1981 with one win.

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1992 F1 Champion Nigel Mansell went Indycar racing in '93, and pushed a little too hard a little too early at the Phoenix International Raceway practice session hitting the wall hard and injuring his back.

Mansell would go on to win five races that season, finish third at Indy and win the Championship at his first attempt. 1994 didn't go so well and before the end of the season he returned to F1, with most people seemingly pleased to see the back of him, including his team mate, the great Mario Andretti. Mario said, "I guess if Ronnie Peterson was the best team-mate I ever had, Nigel Mansell was the worst. I had a lot of respect for him as a driver, but not as a man".

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A pile-up at the TransAm race at St. Jovite in 1969, including such talents as Mark Donohue and George Follmer.

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The 1969 Wolverine 400 Trans-Am race at Michigan International Speedway. The race conditions were very wet and on lap 8 Austrian Horst Kwech lost control of his Mustang at 120mph, went through a fence and into a spectator area injuring 12 spectators, one fatally.

Kwech holds the distinction of being the only driver to win a Trans-Am race in both the over and under two litre divisions.

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Two Trans-Am cars both Camaro's lose their wheels. The first is Walter Parkins at Donnybrooke in 1972. The second is Ken Stoddard in 1971.

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The Spa 24 hours race in 1973 and Hans-Peter Joisten was at the wheel of the BMW 3.0 CSL at the seventh hour at 2300 when he went wide lapping a slower car, spun and stalled in the middle of the track in total darkness.

Two Alfas came racing along in close convoy (Ballot Lena leading Dubos) - Ballot saw the BMW at the last second and swerved around it but poor Dubos had nowhere to go and slammed into the BMW.

Claude Ballot-Léna skidded some 100 meters down the road. Fortunately he escaped unhurt and immediately ran back to the accident in a vain attempt to help the other drivers, though it was concluded later that both men were killed almost instantly.

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Turn number one at Riverside Raceway 1986 and a truly frighterning accident in the IMSA Championship race.

Doc Bundy (GTP Corvette) tried to pass Lynn St. James (GTP Probe) and there was never going to be enough room. They both crashed very heavily and took out Chip Robinson (GTP Jaguar). The Jag took off and flipped, and the Probe turned upside down along the guardrail before bursting into flames. All three drivers walked away with minor injuries.

Lynn St. James said afterwards, “Coming through Turn One at over 180 mph, I was hit from behind by Doc Bundy. It wasn’t intentional, it was just aggressive racing, but the results were catastrophic. My car hit a third car, and all three cars became missiles. I hit the pit wall, flipped, spun, and slid upside down on the edge of the track. I remember seeing dirt, gravel, and oil spray over the windshield, and for a split second I thought I was plowing a ditch in the earth. I’d never seen so much debris on a windshield. That was before I saw and felt fire.”

Photo's taken by Roy Hooper.