here is more video with a full description of what happened. FF to the 9:45 mark.
http://goracingtv.com/09/16/2012/speed-news-video-mag-september-episode/
Story from the GTS page:
Quote Originally Posted by shiza40
The fire
Despite our lamentations to the drivers regarding contact, arguably the worst incident of the weekend happened during Thursday morning's qualifying session. Southeast Regional Director Jim Pantas was driving his daughter's Pepto-Bismol pink BMW SE30 as a GTS2 car. Hurrying down Thunder Valley, a short straight along the back of the Mid-Ohio facility, he watched the traffic ahead of him scatter just in time to see the nearly-stopped GTS1 Porsche 944 of Greg Panik, busy fighting a gearbox problem, dead ahead.
Although Panik had moved well off the racing line, a gaggle of GTS3 and GTS4 cars around Pantas' slower BMW left him in the same place. Pantas had no time to divert and just managed to lock up the brakes before slamming into the back of Panik's limping car. Unbeknownst to either driver, the impact burst Panik's gas tank and fuel was gushing out beneath Pantas' car and across the track.
Several cars made it safely past before Mike Ward (GTS2 Porsche 968), assuming he was seeing coolant, drove through the river of fuel. The resulting splash sent gasoline misting up to his hot brake rotors and ignited the whole thing.
Ward continued on with flames streaking down both sides of his car. Meanwhile, the main part of the puddle--the part under Pantas' BMW--burst into an inferno. You know how it is in the movies when they light off gasoline bombs and there's an obscene dark orange flame pumping out an incredibly thick column of sooty black smoke?
It was exactly like that.
Exactly.
I've seen video of this from a following racer and the whole thing is absolutely sobering. Inside of what was probably no more than two or three seconds, Pantas' car became fully engulfed, surrounded on both sides by flames reaching ten or more feet into the air.
Of course, he unbuckled and exited the car, but as he told me afterward, "I started to take a breath but it was too hot so I held my breath but then realized I couldn't see anything and didn't know which way I should go. I knew the other car was over that way so I just ran the other way and hoped it was right."
In all, it took him nearly ten seconds to get out of the flames which, when you see the video, seems like a very, very long time. A scary long time. Miraculously, and thanks to the quality of his safety gear, Jim's only burns were on his chin and eyebrows as he'd skipped wearing a balaclava. He has vowed never to do that again.
The impact pushed Pantas' BMW's left front tire back into the passenger compartment, spraining his ankle. Once out of the flames, he limped over to the guardrail only to realize he could hear the other driver screaming, "I can't get out! I can't get out!"
Panik, it turned out, had a harness on which the central connector was attached to the submarine strap rather than the more conventional lap belt configuration. By accident, he had turned it the wrong way when buckling in and now the release handle was up against his body instead of facing away as he expected. In the excitement and fear of the moment, he didn't realize the issue and couldn't find the release as the flames licked ever closer.
Fortunately, and thanks to the incline of the track, the bulk of the fuel and flames remained in the rear of the stranded 944 and hadn't quite gotten to the driver yet. Hearing the screams, Pantas hurried across the track again as fast as he could on his bum leg, helping to extract the panicked Panik safely.
Thanks to Jim Pantas' quick thinking and bravery, both drivers ended up okay (small burns and the hurt ankle notwithstanding) but the cars are both write-offs.