Shane van Gisbergen had a tough outing at the Tauranga venue in his return to sprint car racing after a successful rookie season in the Xfinity Series. Piloting the United Truck Parts machine, the Trackhouse Racing star was involved in a nerve-wracking accident on Sunday. SVG has even shared the brutal video of the accident from his POV.

The Kiwi speedster got through the first round of heat races of the night with a 12th-place finish. But he was just out of place and ideas in the second heat race despite starting from third. Unable to get going up to his regular speeds, he even brought out an early caution, which saw him start the race on the tail end of the field.

As soon as SVG started to make headway, he was caught in a big accident on the outside lane. The #97 sprint car rammed into the rear of #28 of Ayrton Hodgson on Turn 1; this impact saw Shane van Gisbergen get airborne and roll a few times before landing back on the track. Hodgson could continue to race, while SVG had to retire his car.

Taking to Instagram, SVG shared the visuals of his crash. “Well, that was my first ever flip! Unfortunately, it got collected by someone and took a bit of a ride. Thanks to the safety crew for doing an amazing job. The United Truck Parts team are having at rebuilding the car and we should be racing tonight at Baypark again 🤞”

SVG’s team is hard at work trying to repair his sprint car schedule at Baypark on December 30th. Meanwhile, NASCAR fans were left baffled by how the driver was lucky to escape the scary crash without sustaining any major injuries.

NASCAR fans react to Shane van Gisbergen’s bone-chilling accident

Unlike the NASCAR race car, there are no safer barriers or extra layers of safety precautions while racing on dirt. The impact with the concrete wall launched SVG in the air, and had it not been for a robust car design and a response from the safety crew, things could’ve gone south for him. Reacting to this accident, a fan wrote, “Harsh landing! 😬 hope you’re feeling okay after that! 🙏🏽”

Well, this race fan was clearly frustrated with Ayrton Hodgson on how he raced SVG. It wasn’t the case that the #97 was trading paint with the #28 car, but rather Hodgson played a role in SVG being flipped in the air. In the video shared by SVG, it’s clear that the #28 car got loose and slid toward the fence. Pinning the blame on Hodgson, this race fan wrote, “NOT CLEAR! Glad you’re okay. What a bone-head move from the car on the inside.”

The 3-time Supercars champ has arrived in his home country for the first time since March. While he has amassed good support back in the United States, his home fans are eager to see him in action on the racetrack. This accident could’ve easily derailed SVG’s off-season racing schedule. “Glad you’re safe and already looking forward to racing tonight,” another fan replied.

Well, this wild crash even caught the attention of his teammate from Trackhouse Racing. Unlike most of the fans and SVG’s supporters, Daniel Suarez was applauding SVG as if he had unlocked an achievement. Or he knows for sure that such a crash or accident wouldn’t keep the Kiwi driver off track for a long time. “Easyyyyyy mate!! 💪🏽💪🏽” Suarez wrote in the comments of the Instagram post.

Now, the Trackhouse Racing fans wouldn’t want their road course specialist to miss any of the races at the start of the season because of an injury. Despite the accident being violent, the good news was that Shane van Gisbergen was unscathed and ready for the next challenge. Breathing a sigh of relief, a user on X wrote, “glad you’re good! those wrecks are always wild.”

If SVG’s team is able to finish the repair work on the #97 sprint car, he will be returning to race at Baypark on December 30.