He’s a survivor
Hynes walks away unhurt from terrible racing accident
John Hynes of Winnebago got the ride of a lifetime on Thursday, July 18.
No, he wasn’t at Valleyfair in Shakopee or at any other amusement park. He wasn’t skydiving or taking a ride in a fighter jet.
Hynes, as he has done for the last three summers, was in Fairmont racing at the Fairmont Raceway in the Hobby Stock division when he was in an accident that sent his No. 57 car into a barrel roll. His car rolled three or four times before hitting the top of the concrete wall in the third turn of the track. At that point the car flipped over end for end an unknown number of times before coming to rest, right side up, at the bottom of a steep embankment outside of the track.
“I was in the backstretch heading into the No. 3 turn,” Hynes explains. “The other car was on the high side so I slid down, He slid down and hooked me somewhere toward the back of the car – maybe the bumper or maybe the back car panel.”
This was all happening as the speeds of the racing cars approached 100 miles per hour.
Next thing Hynes knew, he was sliding towards the tractor tire on the wall in turn No. 3.
“I thought I was going to T-bone the big tire,” Hynes said. “But, before I hit the wall the car started rolling.”
The car hit the top of the wall in the third turn and separated the car body from the frame and chassis before flipping end-over-end.
“I was holding on to the steering wheel and the steering column broke. I was upside down in the air and could see the ground because the top of the car was gone,” he commented. “So I let go of the steering wheel and hugged my arms to my chest.”
When the car finally came to a rest after hurdling through the air, it had landed on its tires.
“By the time the EMTs got back to the car I had already gotten myself out and was laying on the ground working on removing my helmet,” Hynes continues. “They thought I had been thrown from the vehicle. But honestly, if I had been thrown out of the vehicle I don’t think I’d be alive.”
Hynes was trying to convince the EMTs he was alright but they insisted on giving him a checkup.
“I know they were just doing their job,” Hynes admits. “I guess I wasn’t in a very good mood.”
He said he asked the first EMT that arrived on the scene if the car was junk, and they replied yes.
“I asked, ‘Is it really junk?'” Hynes said. “They told me I was not going to be able to race the car again.”
With it now established that the car was not salvageable, Hynes showed that in spite of his misfortune, he still had a sense of humor.
“Are there gonna be some cool videos of the accident” he inquired.
“Yes,” the EMT replied. “There are going to be some real cool videos of the accident.”
Two videos are now on Hynes’ Facebook page. One is from the track camera and the other is from a driver who was trailing the accident.
“It was wild,” Hynes said. “I was racing, got spun and was looking at the turn three wall,” he shared. “When I landed, my first thought was I’m not where I am supposed to be. Honestly, I felt like I never left the track.”
Hynes finally relented and got in the ambulance and let them take him to the parking lot in front of the track.
“When the door to the ambulance opened, my mom (Judi) was there,” Hynes said. “I asked her if she could go and get me some nachos and cheese from the concession stand. I told her to tell them it was for the guy that was just in the accident and maybe she could get them for free, and she did.”
Judi Hynes was in the stands when the accident occured.
“I saw it from where I was sitting,” she shares. “After the accident, I eventually went to the flag man and he told me he would get me to my son. We started walking and then I got a ride from a race official in a side-by-side. Up until that time I had not heard anything about John’s condition, but the man driving the side-by-side told me that my son was conscious. I was also told he had a lot of energy and adrenaline. I finally saw him when they brought him around to the parking lot in the ambulance.”
Judi Hynes said there was also some confusion about whether her son was going to be taken to the hospital.
“In the end, the medical staff determined he did not need further treatment,” she says.
She was also quick to express her gratitude for everyone who helped her son that night.
“The EMS people, track officials and everyone that responded to John’s crash were our heroes,” she states. “John was a challenge to deal with, and getting a 6-foot-5, 235 pound man on a stretcher up that embankment was no easy task. We are profoundly grateful.”
John Hynes notes he was not sore that night or the next day.
“The only thing that hurt the next day were my eyes,” he says. “Maybe that was from the G-forces I experienced during the accident, I don’t know.”
He acknowledges that the safety equipment he had in his car was the key for him being able to walk away from the wreck.
“A full-containment seat, head and neck restraints, a five-point safety harness and a good helmet are all important,” Hynes comments. “I was probably fortunate that when the car body panels broke free from the frame they flew away instead of coming into the car.”
Hynes already has another car ready to go and would have raced in Mason City, Iowa, the weekend after his accident, but the event got rained out.
“I will be ready to go for the next race in Fairmont,” he concludes.
Hopefully, that race won’t have the same kind of excitement as his previous race at the Fairmont Raceway.