marlena usually watches him race, but on this night, she s at home while he competes. i m pregnant and that s part of the reason i stayed home that night. mike s cousin, colton perry, is in the stands with their grandfather taking video of the race. i go every saturday. he s pretty fun to watch. another camera records from inside the car. about one minute in to the race, mike, in car number 83, is falling behind. we were actually running second last. i was trying to work my way up through. and all i remember seeing was a car coming down the track and thinking, man, i m going for a ride here. and as soon as we touched wheels, i was up in the air. flipping over is fairly common in stock car racing. at first, mike isn t worried. the impact didn t really
of seconds, somebody s hand come in and kind of guide me. this is a way out. as soon as i felt that, that s the way i went. after 13 seconds in the overturned car, mike escapes uninjured. some of his rescuers have burns. they all singed their arms a little bit, i guess you could say. if them guys would have gotten scared and let the car go, it would have fallen on its side. the fire would have kept getting fuel dumped in to it. i probably would have ended up dying. as soon as i got a phone call as to what actually happened, i was there in a heartbeat. when i first showed up at the racetrack, i had people going, oh, my god, thank god you weren t here. that was the most horrible thing we ever saw. i was shaken up at that point. michael was not shaken up at all. mike s car also makes a surprisingly speedy recovery. the car didn t really sustain any injuries besides cosmetics. the miracle is we got the car back together 25 minutes later.
there was no ifs, ands or buts about it, he was ready to go. less than an hour after his car turned into a fireball, mike is back on the track competing in another race. he comes if fifth. i wanted to kick fear in the butt before it got a chance to set in. later that night, marlena sees the video in the crash. i couldn t handle it. i literally walked out of the house crying. but she still won t get between her husband and his race car. i know that s what he loves to do. and i would never ask him not to race. a true racer has no fear about getting in that car week in and week out. coming up, get ready for impact. and later, a relaxing family vacation? [ screaming ] oh, my god!
pennsylvania. mike is where he loves to be every saturday night, behind the wheel of race car at the mahoning valley speedway. i got interested in racing but a my dad raced for 30-some years. by the age 11, i already learned how to drive a car. at age 36, mike had been racing stock cars for years. that is how he met his wife. my grandfather was on his pit crew. he was honest with me when we started dating about how racing was his first love, will always be his first love and that was that. it s a passion more dangerous than most. i do get nervous a lot. but i know, push comes to shove, he s going to be all right because he s a good driver.
hurt. just an everyday accident. even though it was my first time going on my side, it was all right, go through the driver checklist and start getting out of the car. although mike turns the engine off, fuel drips in to the car. i saw the fuel dripping out of the carburetor and i figure if i can get my belts off, i will flip it. because he s on his side, mike has trouble removing his seatbelt. fuel continues to leak, threatening to ignite at any moment. the pit crew rushes to help him. they started asking are you all right. i kept telling them, yeah, i m fine, but i m stuck in my seatbelt. can you stand the car so i can release it? as the crew heaves the car upright, it bursts in to flames. the camera continues recording while the fire spreads. i was trapped. it crossed my mind i had died. when the fire started, i was