An ITV cameraman escaped serious injury in an alarming incident that saw his television tower struck by Hunter Abbott at the start of the final Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race at Snetterton.
On a Sunday that was marred by numerous incidents across the trio of races in Norfolk, Abbott’s Power Maxed Racing Cruze was tipped into a frightening barrel roll down the pit straight while evading an incident between the Team Parker Racing Ford Focus of Alex Martin and Team BKR‘s Mark Howard.
Abbott’s Chevrolet collected the TV tower which subsequently toppled over, the car finally coming to rest on the Armco barrier alongside Ollie Jackson‘s AmDTuning Audi S3.
The cameraman in question was reportedly shaken from the incident, but given the all-clear by the on-track medics who were rapidly on the scene.
The incident was the second stoppage of the day, Abbott unfortunate enough to be caught up in an earlier incident in race two that eliminated seven drivers.
“None of us are in motorsport for that.” – Hunter Abbott
Speaking to The Checkered Flag afterwards, the Chevrolet driver assured he was unhurt, saying: “Yes. Touring cars are designed and built very well.
“I couldn’t get far enough away to avoid it happening. My front-right clipped the front-left of Howard’s car and that’s what put us up into a roll – quite similar to what happened to [Rob] Collard a couple of years ago.
“The rest of it, you saw.
“I didn’t realise I hit a camera tower until I got out. For me, it’s one as a driver where we know there’s risk to it, but when it comes to spectators – they’re not very far away from that barrier.
“That was my concern while I was rolling. A number of years ago it happened at Oulton Park (in British GT) and, when I felt it going onto the barrier, I was worried because I knew the spectators were there. Thankfully the [cameraman] is ok, because it could very easily have been a very different situation.
“None of us are in motorsport for that.”
