The picture, above, is from the US Grand Prix Formula 1 race in Austin, Texas, held on November 17, 2013. This is a screen capture from the NBC Sports coverage of the event. During the first lap, racers Pastor Maldonado and Adrian Sutil had a collision on the back straight, causing the Force India car of Sutil to careen into the fence, narrowly missing a flag station.
What you don't know is that the person you see on the far right of the frame wearing the blue firesuit with the white vest is me.
The car impacted the fence about 20 feet beyond my post - I was one of the team manning Turn 11D flag station at the race, part of a group of almost 300 volunteers that were the track marshals - the safety crew that you see waving flags and working on the track during the race weekend.
In the seconds after the impact, my team deployed - we put out a yellow caution flag and two of our team ran to the car, one with a fire extinguisher. My job was to talk on the radio and inform race control of what happened. The medical support car follows the race cars around the track on the first lap, and they were at the scene almost instantly, talking to the driver. He motioned that he was OK, and started to get out of the car.
Since the wreck was still on the race track, Race Control declared a full course caution and deployed the safety car to slow down the other racecars. Our spot on 11D is the fastest point on the race track -- we are literally astride the speed trap where the car's speed is measured by timing and scoring, and the cars are going nearly 200 mph as they pass us.
I joined my other two teammates in clearing up the wreckage off the race track. I requested a GRV - Gravel Recovery Vehicle - to pick up the car. There were several nearby. We had the car off the track and the debris cleaned up in three laps and the race could continue. It took several more laps before our hearts stopped racing.
