Hunter-Reay says he ‘got away with one’
Ryan Hunter-Reay recalls seeing Robert Wickens’ car hit the fence at Pocono Raceway, slingshot back toward his exposed head and that he was somehow able to “shrug down” inside his cockpit to avoid the debris.
Video footage from his in-car camera doesn’t show Hunter-Reay moving at all.
Instead, the clip provides a terrifying glimpse at just how close Wickens’ spinning car came to striking Hunter-Reay’s head in what would have almost surely been a fatal blow.
Wickens suffered spinal cord and other injuries in Sunday’s crash. Hunter-Reay, an IndyCar champion and Indianapolis 500 winner, was not injured.
“I could see it. I knew it was close. I saw him get up into the fence and he was flying over me; I saw all of it,” Hunter-Reay said Thursday. “In real time, having lifted, I wasn’t really aware I was that close. After seeing the in-car (footage), you know, the reality set in that I got very close to a much different and much worse outcome.”
Hunter-Reay and the entire IndyCar paddock go back to work this weekend still pained by the Pocono crash. The severity of Wickens’ injuries has not been determined. The waiting has been agonizing for the close-knit community as drivers prepare for Saturday ’s race at Gateway Motorsports Park near St. Louis.
Not wanting to draw attention from Wickens and his recovery, Hunter-Reay was reluctant to dwell on his brush with danger. But he had two strong take-aways.
“What effect did it have on me? Well, I’d like to see the cockpits protected in the future,” HunterReay said. “And the other effect was, ‘Wow, I just got away with one.’”
IndyCar has been studying ways to protect the open cockpits for years. The series has tested a prototype of a windscreen that could deflect debris, while others have made cases for an aircraft-type canopy that encloses the cockpit or a halo protector similar to the one Formula One introduced this year.