1991 Nissan Mobil 500 Wellington - Tony Longhurst Hard Crash

1991 Nissan Mobil 500 Wellington - Tony Longhurst collide with John Sax that sends Tony Longhurst hard into the wall not once but twice.

[@leonkernan]

An interview ON THE TRACK with the cars still out. They certainly were different times....

[@lostinspace699]

better ,,,times ,

[@t16205]

@@lostinspace699 Real men were allowed to be real men!

[@janreznak881]

That’s “No Baloney Tony” for you. Legend and a great mate.

[@IanGovey]

I was a flag marshal at the spot where Longhurst first hit the wall, and it was right in front of me. He hit it at over 100mph, way faster than it would appear from the footage. All I saw was the initial bang, and then the wrecked car's momentum carrying it all the way down to the next marshals' post, trailing smoke and debris. In following years at the race I saw the concrete barrier that took the impact, with an impressive series of circular impressions scrolling all the way along it from the wheels digging into the concrete. And man, those M3's were LOUD!

[@morris2450]

Tony was lucky he wasn't killed in that accident

[@standupgee1]

I was at this race only a kid at the time dad use to take me every year l have never forgotten this crash it was huge

[@SomeYouTubeGuy]

This is why window nets were made compulsory in touring car racing.

[@mountainlogistics9882]

This crash happened right in front of me, as a kid of 11 it scarred the shit out of me.

[@tomoliver3177]

Massive crash, tv crew jump onto a live track to check how much blood there is, and conduct interviews before the medics get to the drivers and then the coverage does a montage with Guns n Roses playing. What a time to watch a race 😮😮😮

[@kingkreole9121]

5:02 We've wrote off 200,000 dollar car. That's the main thing. Just some scratches on his left cheek, probably from the concrete wall. Got to love him.

[@Inkrebelnz]

Holy heck,, at 6.36 you can see his helmet hits a rise in the concrete barrier and the concrete explodes into a puff of dust.. he was one very lucky man to come out of that one

[@GazzaAyrton]

Can defo see concrete dust from car impact, not head. Helmet break glass which you can see shatter.

[@Inkrebelnz]

@@GazzaAyrton frame by frame.. it’s his helmet

[@dstella5841]

Pretty good effort by the pit commentator to get right on the scene and get the interviews.

[@BornAgainCynic0086]

6:36 seriously scary stuff

[@user-sk3tn1hr8t]

Might as well be like 'Yeah, he's just on the stretcher now, I'll try to get a word with him'!

[@jamescrump8482]

What a dumb place to try and pass

[@gosportjamie]

Ouch, that was huge. Any day a driver can walk away from a smash like that is a good day.....

[@zildog]

Holy FUCK... I don't know what was more brutal.. the accident itself or giving the driver a bunch of bullshit questions and playing back the accident immediately after the accident AND while he wipes fresh blood off the wounds!!

[@captainkaos1770]

the good old days real men real cars real racing not the v8 supercar crap remember getting up at the crack of dawn to watch bathurst guys ? I don't even set the alarm now

[@albinobeach]

I do, great fun.

[@AlonsoRules]

Open face helmets, no HANS, windows down

[@michaelwyres]

...and 25 years ago...

[@Chives5150]

Pretty sickening seeing his head hit the window.

[@SirDaffyD]

I believe that this was the crash that made window nets compulsery in the class.

[@scottnz411]

no full containment seats , different times,

[@BLKBRDD]

No side head guards on the seat either 😬

[@jonathanparle8429]

I'm a huge fan of Longhurst and to be fair he really had to drive that little car at 101% all the time to make up for the relative lack of torque and the lesser power to weight ratio versus the opposition. I'd go so far as to say that I reckon in 1991-1992, Longhurst was the best BMW driver in the world. With all that said, it was a terrible idea to try and pass there. It was never going to work without at least one car ending up in the wall.

[@thiscocks]

Yeah, did seem like a bit of a lunge and not much the red BMW could have done as he was already committed to turning in

[@hector_nimrod]

Ohhh the 90's

[@vladimirzimonja8103]

Yes,more dangerous but more interesting.

[@graemeottey8131]

He’s lucky he didn’t get his head taken off when the concrete barriers separated during impact.

[@obiemichaels9675]

I think Tony might’ve actually been in the wrong here. Pretty sure he actually clips the wall on the left first and then hits the car on the right. It is a little bit hard to see and I wasn’t obviously there. Tony was probably one of the most approachable guy in the pit paddock at the time and Dick always gave off the perception that he wasn’t but I met on multiple occasions and he was actually generally very good to talk to. I member Pit crewing at targa Tasmania in 1996. Lined up to speak to Jim Richards when the guy behind me tap me on the shoulder and said he’s a hard man to get hold of isn’t he when I looked around there was Dick Johnson tapping me on the shoulder I stood and talk to him for a little while, he was very approachable. Very nice guy definitely when it came to the safety of others a good sport.

[@chriswhite6546]

Stupid place to try and pass, but I see the Sax car tap him in the rear and knock the rear of his car left. Still, where was Sax supposed to go? Tony was essentially feeding him into the wall on the right at high speed.

[@marktucker208]

That is actually horrendous

[@AVportau]

3:43 Longhurst didn't bounce off the 1st wall, he was tail clipped by Sax who turned in on him... but the craziest thing here is Dick Johnson ran over to help and allowed Longhurst to remove his helmet.

[@leonkernan]

Sax was already on a line in the corner. Tony decided he wanted to go through regardless and this was the result.

[@darcy5995]

My last name is longhurst I wonder if I’m related to tony somehow

[@ldnwholesale8552]

Big shunt, Sax should have given more room but Longhurst tried to pass where he should not have. Stupid dangerous track , worse than most street circuits.

[@seanyuke3249]

Here's the footage, tell us what's happening...seriously?

[@brucebird133]

These days thered be 150 replays before anything else

[@marty3469]

All for TV ratings

[@gintoni2191]

This happened to Joe Weatherly in the nascar and got killed, sveral years later nascar required windows net to race

[@sats7819]

poor E30 m3's :(((((

[@DirtySlapper99]

It got fixed and in the uk i believe

[@doric_historic]

Like crashing your armchair into a concrete wall...

[@stuartcrigan6105]

o shit

[@user-dc7ud4vr1w]

His head hit the wall there was no window lucky bloke

[@MiniOne82]

Christ was massive

[@Vk-ir6if]

Miss those days, better than supercar Rubbish now.

[@mrivantchernegovski3869]

2 BMW E30 smashed to bits

[@TheMatadrum]

Hahaha... NZ commentary really was something compared to Moff and Raymond.

[@biro24]

Noooooooooooooooooo the M3 😭😭😭😭

[@DaveFazzino]

HANS device would have helped that one...

[@VirtualR]

Back in the day you could jump in and help a driver and they wouldn't put up a massive fence and ruin everything for future spectators.

[@darrylkelly7958]

Ha if Tony hit the inside wall, how the fuck did it jink towards the inside wall??? Bloody Kiwi commentators using a sheeps arse as their binoculars obviously.... Still that was a hard lick on the wall. I bet Aaron Noonan doesn't do a where are they now feature on that car...4:45 is why we use window nets now kiddies.

[@CG-kw3th]

you're an idiot it was the inside wall relative to the orientation of the vehicle vs corner or in this case chicane being that the initial wall impact was on the wall at the entry to the right hander thus the inside wall

[@bremCZ]

Darryl Kelly You are the one smoking, the crash did start on a left hander but he made contact with the inside of the following right hander. It isn considered the outside of the first corner because its closer to the apex of the next corner.

[@dstella5841]

Pretty good effort by the pit commentator to get right on the scene and get the interviews.