Racing driver Golikov spoke about his condition after the car caught fire at the SMP RSKG stadium

Rider Roman Golikov spoke on about an incident during the competition, when he was burned in a car following a fire, but managed to escape.

Golikov escaped serious injury after his car caught fire during the third stage of the Russian Circuit Racing Series (RSKG) NSR in Kazan. The incident happened on Sunday. Golikov drove a Honda in the Super Production class, during the race fire entered the cabin, among other things. The driver got out of the car alone.

– The condition is more or less, the doctors say to observe how the redness and swelling will pass, but the lungs are not affected, which is the most important. And the eyes are not affected. The skin will heal.

The preparation went well. There was a morning warm-up. There was a slight smell of gasoline, but that happens after refueling the car. He crosses the circle. It was the same before the race, but I thought it would pass. On the second lap, the smell of gasoline in the car became very strong, I had to open the window. It got so hard it hurt my eyes. I thought if the smell didn’t go away then we had to stop.

But the car caught fire after 500 meters, and I didn’t have time to stop. It was very hot in the car, everywhere, on all sides. Heat, fire and the last thing I saw was flames and black soot. After that he closed his eyes, tried to hide his face somewhere, because it was hot, and you were tied in the car and it was still driving. There is also a high speed corner in 4th gear, if you go sideways you can roll over. This means that the situation is complicated. You had to level the car and close your eyes, while moving your head somewhere.

At the first moment, at the very beginning, the first 10 seconds, he shook his hand, felt through the glove, as if his hand was burned with boiling water. LAW. She still feels a little. The heat felt through the glove. Three times worse than in the bath.

Even on the move, he was still trying to get out, to pull the door handle. But there you have to pull the door, and it works in the end. I pulled it several times, but my hand slipped. That’s why the door didn’t open. When the car stopped, I even tried to get out of the window. It was I who didn’t wave to the marshal, but tried to get out of the car. And all this time I didn’t breathe, I did everything with my eyes closed, so a long time. And in the end I already looked for the electric window and remembered that the door handle was behind the electric window, I told myself to calm down. He reached his hand a little further, opened the door and left.

There is such a saying that when the critical moment comes, you will either rise to the level of your expectations or fall to the level of your preparation. Probably, the level of my preparation was such that it allowed me to get out of it. Maybe not as fast as we would like. But he wasn’t breathing and burning his eyes.

The combination helped a lot. The sleeves have melted in places like caramel steel. The fact that the helmet was saved is beyond doubt. In fact, I only have burns on my face in the open places.

In general, it seems to me that there are a lot of nuances for improvement. And introduce some sort of safety standard. For example, make the fire handle the same everywhere in all sports cars from below under the steering wheel.

At one point it was really scary. Without any courage I say that it was very stupid. You can compare it to putting your hand in the fire and not being able to pull it back. She’s fried like a strap-on. And you can’t do anything about it. That’s when you can take it, when your face is on fire, only then can the brain give orders to do something else: open the door, try to light the fire, etc.

At one point it seemed like I didn’t even believe I was lucky to make it out, because the 10 seconds I tried to find that handle was probably the hardest.

In any situation, you must extract the maximum of positive opportunities, even if the situation is unpleasant. Maybe I’ll pay more attention to detail. That’s for sure! There is no particular fear. For now, it seems to me that hopefully nothing will change. When I get in the car, we’ll see,” Golikov told .