West Surrey Racing driver Rob Collard has been airlifted to hospital for precautionary X-ray scans after his crash at the end of the second British Touring Car Championship race at Silverstone.
Collard had dropped into the midfield in the latter stages of the race having initially run in the top five, and was running in 13th place on the penultimate lap of the race when his rear was clipped by Jack Clarke as he tried to avoid the spinning Crabbie’s Racing machine, who himself had been tagged by Gordon Shedden.
The impact sent Collard’s BMW off balance, and he found himself pitched into the air, double-rolling before landing upside down some seconds later on the outside of the Wellington straight. The race was red flagged shortly afterwards.
Collard was immediately taken to the circuit’s medical centre and was said to be okay, but has been taken to hospital for further checks.
Clarke: “an innocent party unfortunately had to suffer”
Jack Clarke said the crash that caused Rob Collard to be airlifted to hospital and ultimately the second British Touring Car Championship race to be red flagged was a racing incident where “an innocent party unfortunately had to suffer”.
The Crabbie’s Racing driver – who was classified in tenth after the race – gave his reaction to the crash, which was triggered when he was tagged by Gordon Shedden, and expressed his relief that Collard was supposedly okay.
“I came together with Gordon at Becketts,” said Clarke to TouringCars.Net. “He gave me a little bit of a tap on the exit which put me sideways.
“It wasn’t a bad move, we just came together on the exit which put me sideways and into the path of Rob. It was a racing incident, a bit of rough and tumble between me and Gordon and an innocent party unfortunately had to suffer.
“I’ve heard he is alright which is pretty encouraging but it’s as simple as that – sometimes that sort of thing is going to happen.”