Duo cheat 270m/918' death plunge
Like an impending rollercoaster ride with the descent just beyond view, Scott Juniper and Dan Bowden's hearts were in their throats as their rally car slid toward a 270-metre ravine on New Zealand farmland. But this was no thrill ride.
When the ground disappeared beneath the 2003 Twin Turbo Porsche and only sky stretched ahead - neither knew which track gravity would take them. Scott went silent, Dan started screaming expletives. The silver Porsche flipped about 30 times before landing in an inaccessible ravine, 8km from the finish line of a Targa New Zealand racing stage.
Excerpt from Sunshine News
"We came up to the corner and it was listed as an extremely dangerous caution. Scott had slowed down but the brakes didn't work and we went right off the edge," Dan said.
"We were airborne for about 50 metres but we couldn't see all the way to the bottom then. We could only see 170m down but there was another ledge and another
100m. The g-forces involved and the rolling was unbelievable - the safety
system in the car was the only reason we lived".
"At the start I didn't think we were going to die but the roll cage started beating down on our heads - then every roll we landed on the roof was absolutely terrifying. We couldn't even see where we were when we got out of the car and we could not believe we'd survived."
The prominent Sunshine Coast businessmen returned late yesterday with Dan sporting one of the best black eyes I've ever seen and Scott with chipped teeth, harness and
helmet marks, and an "enormous" headache after being knocked unconscious.
The car had the strongest roll cage available, seats that enveloped their heads, and strong harnesses and helmets. While Dan plans to return to racing for the Noosa Hillclimb next weekend, Scott said he would wait another month before deciding whether to get behind the wheel of a rally car again.
"I was able to see down when we slid over the edge and I thought we were dead, I didn't think we would walk away," Scott said. "I had a co-driver with me; you just start to realize the gravity of how responsible you actually are for someone's life. I remember quite a few of the tumbles but then there was a long space of rolling in the air and I just remember a really hard impact - then I don't remember anything until the bottom."
Dan, the 32-year-old managing director of a car care product company called Bowden's Own, said the biggest challenge was trying to walk back up the 270m hill to let people know they were there. "It was that steep we couldn't work out how to get up," he said.
"But it could have been a whole other story if we had both broken bones because no-one would have known we were there. "Someone's watching over us, we're destined for greater things."
"Duo cheat 270m/918' death plunge"
Like an impending rollercoaster ride with the descent just beyond view, Scott Juniper and Dan Bowden's hearts were in their throats as their rally car slid toward a 270-metre ravine on New Zealand farmland. But this was no thrill ride.
When the ground disappeared beneath the 2003 Twin Turbo Porsche and only sky stretched ahead - neither knew which track gravity would take them. Scott went silent, Dan started screaming expletives. The silver Porsche flipped about 30 times before landing in an inaccessible ravine, 8km from the finish line of a Targa New Zealand racing stage.
Excerpt from Sunshine News
"We came up to the corner and it was listed as an extremely dangerous caution. Scott had slowed down but the brakes didn't work and we went right off the edge," Dan said.
"We were airborne for about 50 metres but we couldn't see all the way to the bottom then. We could only see 170m down but there was another ledge and another
100m. The g-forces involved and the rolling was unbelievable - the safety
system in the car was the only reason we lived".
"At the start I didn't think we were going to die but the roll cage started beating down on our heads - then every roll we landed on the roof was absolutely terrifying. We couldn't even see where we were when we got out of the car and we could not believe we'd survived."
The prominent Sunshine Coast businessmen returned late yesterday with Dan sporting one of the best black eyes I've ever seen and Scott with chipped teeth, harness and
helmet marks, and an "enormous" headache after being knocked unconscious.
The car had the strongest roll cage available, seats that enveloped their heads, and strong harnesses and helmets. While Dan plans to return to racing for the Noosa Hillclimb next weekend, Scott said he would wait another month before deciding whether to get behind the wheel of a rally car again.
"I was able to see down when we slid over the edge and I thought we were dead, I didn't think we would walk away," Scott said. "I had a co-driver with me; you just start to realize the gravity of how responsible you actually are for someone's life. I remember quite a few of the tumbles but then there was a long space of rolling in the air and I just remember a really hard impact - then I don't remember anything until the bottom."
Dan, the 32-year-old managing director of a car care product company called Bowden's Own, said the biggest challenge was trying to walk back up the 270m hill to let people know they were there. "It was that steep we couldn't work out how to get up," he said.
"But it could have been a whole other story if we had both broken bones because no-one would have known we were there. "Someone's watching over us, we're destined for greater things."
C.
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