Out in flames! Children on Rae's mind as he exits burning car

Glenroy Sinclair, Assignment Coordinator

The unbearable heat in his Magnum race car prompted Sebastien Rae to take a quick glance over his left shoulder at the Dover raceway on Easter Monday. To his shock, the vehicle was on fire. With scenes from his life flickering across the screen of his memory, Rae quickly pulled off the track, turned the ignition off and leapt out.

"I was so horrified, because I was not sure how close the fire was to the gas tank. My children were among the first things that flashed across my mind," the father of two told Automotives during a post-race interview.

Rae, Jamaica's reigning champion circuit-racing driver, further disclosed that a preliminary investigation by his mechanical team suggested that the fire was the result of a short circuit in the car. The incident occurred during the running of the second Modified Production Class 2 event.

Rae was in third place at the time, pulling out all the stops to catch the two front-runners, Kyle Gregg and Alan Chen, when the mounting temperature raised a red flag.

"When I realised that I couldn't catch them I decided to maintain my position to secure vital points, but the heat became unbearable and that was the time I realised that the fire was inside the car, right behind me," said Rae, who registered four wins and two other podium finishes on the race card.

FANS STUNNED

For a moment the over 4,000 racing fans were stunned, but were relieved when they saw the driver emerge completely unscathed. With the help of the marshals, the blaze was extinguished.

"Half of the car has been badly burnt," said Rae, who is one of several drivers without a 100 per cent race-ready vehicle. Unless he has another car available, this means he may not be able to defend the title he won last year, or represent Jamaica once more in the Caribbean Motor Racing Championship, which gets under way next month.