A DRIVER escaped with nothing more than a bruised shoulder following this spectacular crash on a racetrack near York.

James Smith's souped-up Vauxhall Corsa shot in the air and spun around four or five times before eventually coming to a rest during a York Autograss Club race on Sunday, on a grass track just off the A59 at Hessay.

James, 27, of Wetherby, climbed out and was examined by a paramedic, who was present at the scene, and found he was uninjured.

"I felt a bit sore yesterday, but there was nothing visible apart from a slight bruise on my shoulder from the harness I was wearing," said James.

"These things happen. Everyone was going for the gap and I was doing about 60 mph to 70mph at the end of a straight when I hit someone's wheel and flew up."

He said drivers were well protected by their vehicle in such an Autograss crash nowadays - far more than when his father Martin started racing about 25 to 30 years ago.

He said he used to watch his father and took up racing himself about four years ago, and his father was watching when he crashed.

The 2.1 litre Corsa did suffer some damage, meaning it wouldn't be ready for a race this weekend, but he hoped it would be back on the track by the following weekend.

Autograss club chairman Martyn Tinker said this was only the latest in a series of such accidents at the club but stressed that drivers were so well protected in their vehicles nowadays, about 99.9 per cent emerged uninjured when involved in such crashes.

"They're wearing helmets and a harness, of course, and they're in a roll cage with a head restraint," he said.

York Press:
Driver James Smith was uninjured. Picture: Mark Doherty of Caught Light Photography