A race car driver is recovering in hospital after a fiery crash at Riverside Speedway in James River, N.S. Saturday.
Each time she watches the video of her father’s race car crashing, Lisa Delorey Myers’ stomach turns in knots.
“He hit his brakes. You can hear in the video, plain as day, that his brakes were on. He had nowhere to go. It was a really, really hard smash. I'm just, I'm lucky that he's still here,” says Delorey Myers.
Leaking fuel quickly caught fire and the flames spread among the race cars.
Delorey Myers was in pit row, where she was taking video with her phone.
“I was screaming at my dad. I can just see him sitting in the car. I was screaming to see if he was responsive, but everything was so loud.”
John Delorey was airlifted to hospital in Halifax, where they found fluid around his heart and lungs, along with internal bruising.
His family credits the fast work of the speedway safety crew for preventing further tragedy.
“We're a fast track. Things happen fast here and we want to have the best safety crew and the best safety firefighting equipment, everything that you can have here,” says speedway manager Paul McLean.
John Delorey is an experienced driver who has raced many years at Riverside; however, this was his first race in more than a decade. He was filling in for his son, who's working out west.
“It's in his blood. He loves to do it and it was nice to see him make his return. Unfortunately it had to happen this way,” says Delorey Myers.
Delorey could be released from hospital as early as Tuesday night.
His family says from now on, he'll be spending his time in the pits, as a mechanic.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Dan MacIntosh
