Todd Welling and Phil Speet explained that they encountered a number of close calls during the recent running of the 40th annual Baja 1000.
But no one has to take their word for it.
Go to YouTube.com and see for yourself. After all, seeing is believing.
An amateur photographer captured a horrific helicopter crash and posted the video. The helicopter went down in the early stages of the race, about 60 miles west of the city of Ensenada, Mexico. It slammed into the ground, killing two of the four people on board and two more on the ground.
Watch the video closely, because mere seconds after the chopper went down, an off-road vehicle comes racing into the picture and right towards the down helicopter.
"Yeah, that was us," said Speet, of Holland, who ran the Baja 1000 with Todd Welling, his brother-in-law. "From what I understand, the helicopter got caught up in power lines."
They were able to motor through the wreckage unscathed.
"It was a helicopter doing support for a car, and it was going through about the same time we were going through," said Welling, a Holland native who now resides in San Carlos, Calif. "It was a very close call, but there are a lot of things in life that just miss you, and someday, it's going to get you. But you can't sit around and wait for one to get you."
Welling and Speet were making their second appearance in the Baja 1000, having competed a year ago and taking top honors in the Class 14 division. The two returned this month with a brand new V-10 powered Ilmor Viper, which was built by Andy Prins of Spectrum Sand Sports, 4195 Blue Star Highway in Holland.
The team made the jump up to Class 1 and finished the 1,296-mile race in just over 38 hours. That placed them ninth in the Class 1 field and 89th overall in a field of more than 450 entries.
"We did pretty good overall," Speet said. "The car did well. We had some electrical issues, but overall, it did better than expected because we put it through the moves."
Send e-mail to the author: sports@grpress.com
http://www.mlive.com/autoracing/grpress/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/1195975392295360.xml&coll=6Source: Mlive.com
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1 comment:
As suggested, I went to YouTube...
The video has been removed.
Got another link?
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