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California Race Director Stops Runaway Racecar with Bare Hands, Saves Girl

With certain exceptions, racing requires drivers to start hooning at a very young age. But while kids can sometimes leave adults in the dust at the local racetrack, facing the kind of dangerously surprising events motorsports can and will bring is not exactly in their job description.
California Race Director Stops Runaway Kart with Bare Hands 1 photo
Photo: Screenshot from YouTube
And when such situations occur, adults are required to step in. Unfortunately, we learn to avoid danger while growing up, which, in many cases, means that if a grownup's job description doesn't include stopping a runaway midget racecar with their bare hands, it's pretty likely it won't happen.

We can't say that about the guy in the video below, though. When Doug Lockwood saw an out-of-control mini racecar heading for a crash, he threw himself at the machine, stopping it before the child behind the wheel got hurt.

The man, who describes himself as a race director for dirt track racing (on his Twitter profile), didn't hesitate to tackle the scaled-down racecar, as you'll be able to see in the footage below, which comes from Fast Four Media's Twitter.

Following the same social network, we came across a user who claims his friends' daughter was behind the wheel at the time. We can only imagine what the little one went through when the throttle got stuck on the Chowchilla, CA track.

After all, we've seen more than one adult failing to react properly in the recalled self-accelerating Toyotas.

Doug surely deserves a medal for risking his life to save the girl, and what’s more, after the event, he has explained that a kill switch rule has been introduced, allowing the driver to prevent such incidents from happening. Oh yes, this guy is a badass with a capital "B."

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About the author: Andrei Tutu
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In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist.
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