"You don't see much when it's all happening. It's 180kmh to stopped in two seconds."
That's how 19-year-old rally driver Alex Kelsey yesterday summed up his race-ending smash during the weekend's Drivesouth Otago Rally.
A wheel, major suspension components, and entire panels of bodywork were torn from his Subaru Impreza WRX when it tumbled off the road.
Mr Kelsey's co-driver, Raymond "Crunch" Bennett, had to be helped from the wreckage by eventual rally winners Richard and Sarah Mason, the next competitors on the scene.
The accident occurred on the Golden Bar special stage inland from Palmerston on Saturday morning, when Mr Kelsey, who earlier this season won the Rally of Whangarei and finished third in Rally Wairarapa, lost control over one of the crests that are among the most challenging features of Otago's internationally renowned rally roads.
Event organisers quickly stopped and subsequently cancelled the stage, to enable emergency services to attend the scene.
Mr Kelsey, from the Coromandel, and Mr Bennett, of Palmerston North, were in good spirits when they arrived in Queenstown yesterday, having decided to visit the resort for an afternoon of sightseeing while their competitors continued to race.
"It was a good crash, but it wasn't exactly life-threatening," Mr Kelsey said.
"We're absolutely fine."
Mr Kelsey said the crash was partly caused by the difference in speed between his pre-race reconnoitre at 50kmh and his race-day pace.
"I had noted the corner pretty much perfect, except it had this little bit of a dip in the middle of it.
"We got light, going too quickly ... the outside rear wheel hit the water-table and darted the front off and into the field.
"This is at sort of 180kmh, and we rolled over a few times.
"That was that."
