John George in Serious Crash at Brands Hatch
Team JAG at Brands Hatch
Cornish mobile phone tycoon and racing driver John George has had a serious accident in his racing car at Brands Hatch in Sevenoaks.
Photographs of the accident can be found at our image gallery.
The crash took place yesterday (Sunday, September the 21st, 2008) on the first lap of the final race of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship season, when John George’s Honda Integra Type R came into contact with Darren Turner’s Seat Leon (Seat Sport UK), sending the Team JAG Integra into the crash barrier at almost 100mph.
John George managed to exit the vehicle himself but was taken to hospital last night by helicopter, where he is still under observation. He is heavily bruised and may have some broken ribs, but is fortunate not to have been more seriously hurt. John George said: “I moved to the left to cover my line as I approached the corner, before moving to the right to open it out. As I moved out, Darren had a little overlap on me; he broke and turned to the right at which point the very rear of my car had the tiniest contact with the very front of his. The result was my car was pitched to the right, into the barrier.
“Essentially, I was moving to the right for an approaching left turn and didn’t realise Darren was there. I was in 5th gear at the time, flat-out but didn’t notice my speed. I expect I was approaching 100mph when my car hit the barrier.
“Darren phoned me up to see how I was doing, which was very nice. I’ve also had calls from the circuit’s doctors. I feel very well looked-after by the BTCC community!”
The car is a write-off; it spun several times before coming to a stop on its roof on the tarmac in the middle of the grid.
Trevor Humphrey is the Managing Director of TH Motorsport, the race preparation team that work on building and maintaining John George’s car.
He said: “We had an incident with Jason Hughes (Team KWR, MG ZS) during Race One which took out the rear wheel and rear suspension of the Integra, but the team managed to turn it around and fit an entire new back end onto the car in an hour and a half. John drove very well in Race Two, but being stuck behind Martin Bell for most of the race really cost us; we were almost a second faster on our lap times after John overtook him.
“Then in race three all hell broke loose. Our main concern was John’s safety and wellbeing, but I can’t express how well the Team did their jobs. If the car is safe enough to go through that kind of crash and for the driver to walk away then you’ve got a very good Racing Team indeed.
“I was speaking to John this morning and his sense of humour is certainly back, which is a good sign!
“The medical staff of the BTCC were spot-on, as were the other teams on the grid. The BTCC is a really close-knit community, we’ve been getting emails and telephone calls all day from people wanting to make sure John is OK.
“Ultimately, we got our driver out safely and I’m really grateful to everyone who helped us do that. The Team were amazing all weekend, they were highly professional and I was proud to be their boss.”
Andy Whitaker, Team JAG General Manager said: “I’d like to thank Paul O Neil, who was driving the doctor’s car. The crash took place on the first lap of the race, which meant the nearest safety vehicle to the Integra was the doctor’s car. Paul O Neil stopped his car in front of John’s car and started flagging people round the accident. It was a very gallant of Paul and we were all very grateful for his help. It was quite a tiring and emotional experience for everybody involved.
“I went to the medical centre with John after the accident and he was quite up-beat. Being a keen aviator he was really looking forward to his journey by helicopter to the hospital and wanted to know a lot about the aircraft before departure.”
John George is likely to remain under observation in hospital for the next two days.
ENDS
Date: 22/09/2008