zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Racing
/
Spec Miata And Tow Truck Collide In The Middle Of A Race
Spec Miata And Tow Truck Collide In The Middle Of A Race-November 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:11:14

Some wrecks are easy to see coming, like when two drivers get into an for the win on the last lap of the race. Others are hard to believe even after they’ve occurred, like this spec colliding with a tow truck on track in the middle of a race.

Bill Agha was racing in a event at Sonoma Raceway in California when this went down, of a poor . It looks to have happened during the San Francisco Region SCCA event at Sonoma recently, where Agha on June 30.

Here’s the video from the Facebook page (hell yeah, somebody get me in on that), which shows a corner worker with a yellow flag before Agha’s white Miata comes into the wrecker’s path:

The standing yellow flag in this video tells SCCA drivers to slow down because of a hazard that’s . That’s opposed to a waving yellow, which means drivers need to be prepared to stop for a hazard on the racing surface, or a double yellow, which means the full course is under caution. All yellow flags mean drivers have to slow down and can’t pass.

But the wrecker did come onto the racing surface despite the standing yellow, right as Agha was taking the corner it was driving toward. A Facebook profile seeming to belong to Agha commented on the video, saying:

I have on record that the EV driver was released at the wrong time. He was told he had a 10 sec window to make it clear of traffic to the incident in turn 8 and presumably they never saw my car entering corner seven even though the official video showing me waving and acknowledging the yellow. I will be leaving my comments at this point as this will be escalating from today on.

Another comment about the wreck came from a profile seeming to belong to Clark Cambern, who was listed as finishing 20th in that same race:

I was in the light blue car just in front of the camera car. I could have sworn I saw a white flag and I definitely saw the wrecker roll and was tracking it the whole time. The wrecker could have left a little more room, but #7 should have seen him coming, IMO.

Jalopnik reached out to Agha, San Francisco SCCA, the SCCA national branch and Sonoma for more information on what might have led to the wreck, and heard back from Agha, SCCA’s national office and the race track. We’ll update this story if we hear back from the San Francisco branch after publishing.

Agha responded to Jalopnik in a series of Facebook messages, saying his car was totaled and that the safety team did not recognize “the window they thought they had was not there” for the vehicle. He also said he saw the yellow flag and slowed down, and was looking to see where the wreck was so that he could alter his line around it. He did not see a white flag with the corner worker, which would have signaled that a slow-moving car like an emergency vehicle was on the racing surface.

“I did see the trucks staged, but as soon I started turning my focus was on the yellow wreck,” Agha told Jalopnik. Then, bam, it happened “so fast,” he said.

Agha said the wreck is being ruled as a racing incident, so he’s currently being held responsible for the damages to the front of his car. He’s appealing the ruling to the national office to try to get the damage costs covered, he said.

A representative from the track told Jalopnik that from what they’d been able to gather from staff, the event was hosted and staffed by SCCA. That meant there were no raceway staff or on-track crews working the races.

“However, we take on-track safety very seriously and will be reviewing this incident with the SCCA and our own staff in the coming days,” the spokesperson said in an email, directing Jalopnik to SCCA for more detailed information.

A spokesperson from SCCA’s national division said the general feeling is that “no one, single action was entirely responsible for the whole incident” and that several factors combined to result in the contact.

“The SCCA Stewards of the Meet reviewed the incident with all parties involved and no further action was deemed necessary,” the SCCA spokesperson said in an email to Jalopnik. “Generally, it was agreed that a couple things could’ve been done differently by various parties, so it was decided to treat this as a learning experience so everyone can grow and keep striving to improve on-track safety.”

When asked for more detail on what actions in particular might have led to the wreck to keep opinions from running wild, the SCCA spokesperson simply said, “Different people will have different views and opinions on the matter.”

“But differences of opinion are certainly not uncommon in motorsports—or any other sport, for that matter,” the spokesperson said.

That sounds about right.

Here’s more footage.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Racing
Red Bull Racing F1 Car Is Purple For 2015
Red Bull Racing F1 Car Is Purple For 2015
RBR ran this year, but now that testing is over, the team can show off its race colors. Turns out, they're significantly purple. What's not red, yellow, and blue, as in past years is purple. This has been the trend for the team since 2013 (ever since Infiniti started to...
Nov 11, 2025
Meet The Man Who Rescued The Marussia F1 Team With Dolla Dolla Billz
Meet The Man Who Rescued The Marussia F1 Team With Dolla Dolla Billz
No one expected the Marussia Formula One team to make it on to the grid this year, yet here we are in March, watching the team name as its first driver and going on its plans to make it to the Australian Grand Prix. Ovo Energy founder Stephen Fitzpatrick is...
Nov 11, 2025
Kurt Busch Signs Terms For His Return To NASCAR After Suspension
Kurt Busch Signs Terms For His Return To NASCAR After Suspension
reports this morning that Kurt Busch has signed NASCAR's terms and conditions for the series' consideration of his reinstatement as a driver following his . The suspension still holds in the meantime, however, there is the possibility that Busch will return to the grid. NASCAR suspended Busch after the Family...
Nov 11, 2025
Jim Glickenhaus Wants To Run In The Top Class At Le Mans In 2017
Jim Glickenhaus Wants To Run In The Top Class At Le Mans In 2017
Could we see something very similar to the beloved show up as an LMP1 contender in the World Endurance Championship? Maybe. According to autojourno , Jim Glickenhaus said that he wants to be at Le Mans by 2017. Currently, this tweet is all I have to go on, but since...
Nov 11, 2025
Stop Everything You're Doing And Love Stadium Super Trucks
Stop Everything You're Doing And Love Stadium Super Trucks
is, by far and away, the perfect race series for someone who cares for nothing about racing. Do you really care which driver hates which? No. Do you really care whose dad was whose? No. Do you even care who wins? Not really. But it's loud, it's fast, it's slidey,...
Nov 11, 2025
Max Chilton Will Bring Daddy's Money To Nissan's Insane Le Mans Racer
Max Chilton Will Bring Daddy's Money To Nissan's Insane Le Mans Racer
Max Chilton will join the illustrious ranks of ex-Formula One drivers who've said, "screw you guys, I'm racing Le Mans." Per , Chilton just scored a full-time drive in the Nissan GT-R LM NISMO LMP1-class World Endurance Championship racer along with Alex Buncombe. Max Chilton is most famous for being...
Nov 11, 2025
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved