ANDREW Miedecke has told his side of one of the most infamous incidents in Australian Touring Car Championship history.
Miedecke was one of four cars involved in a fiery crash at the Lakeside round of the 1989 championship, one in which his Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth was burnt to the ground.
The incident happened in the early laps of the race; Miedecke had been looking for a way past fourth-placed Peter Brock, and the pair were lapping the Holden Commodore of John Lusty as they came through the high-speed sweep under the Dunlop Bridge.
“It was very bumpy and the Lusty Commodore danced sideways,” Miedecke told the latest edition of Australian Muscle Car Magazine.
“He blamed me, saying I hit him. (Glenn) Seton ran into me and then a lap later (Murray) Carter ploughed in.”
Lusty’s Commodore had crashed under the armco just prior to the bridge abutment and caught fire, while Seton’s car had come to rest on the grass verge to drivers’ left some 50 metres ahead of the orange Holden.
After its hit from the Peter Jackson Sierra, Miedecke’s car slid to a stop in the middle of the track, broadsides and on fire – but the race was not immediately red flagged.
Miedecke hopped out and was waiting for his opportunity to cross the track, only for cars to rush past him at near full race speed, despite vision being obscured by the smoke from the fires and clouds of fire extinguisher powder being expended on the Lusty Commodore.
“There was flames and smoke and that was the closest I came to dying, not in a racing car but at the track,” Miedecke continued.
“I looked up and saw the people on the inside and I was about to step out – but the shouted ‘woah, don’t!’
“So I waited and then they said ‘go, go, go’ – so I bolted over the fence into the arms of the spectators.
“(The car) didn’t catch fire until after Seton hit me and then Carter hit the left rear corner where the swirl pot for the fuel was and smashed that and it just went up.”
The incident is one of many topics covered by the second part of Miedecke’s Muscle Man feature in Issue 130 of Australian Muscle Car Magazine.
AMC Issue 130’s cover story marks the 50th anniversary of the Holden HQ Monaro GTS 350, while also featured is a road test of the new Chevrolet Corvette C8 that is set to be sold in Australia direct from GMSV, along with a feature on the career of female racer Darrylyn Huitt, best known for campaigning a wild V8-engined Volkswagen Beetle Sports Sedan in the 1970s.
