What starts as your standard track day video soon turns nearly tragic… but not in the way you’d expect when the subject is motorsports. A Finnish driver was enjoying both his Toyota MR2 and the Ahvenisto Race Circuit in Hämeenlinna, Finland. His car appeared to be running well despite his ham-fisted one-hand-on-the-wheel approach to driving. Halfway through the video however, things take an unexpected turn.

The driver pulls into a pit area of the track, and sits in his car. Though he is parked in an outdoor space, carbon monoxide begins to filter into the cabin, and the driver begins to doze off. Attentive track officials notice the man, and probably assume he is taking a nap so they attempt to wake him up. First, by tapping on the window with their hands, then by tapping on the window with a hammer.

Their actions saved a life in a way they probably weren’t expecting that day. Click past the break for the video. Window smashing PAH! action occurs around the 5:45 mark.

Update courtesy of our Favorite Finn Antti:

“Guy smells gas at 1:22, so that’s when the gases start to get in. He hasn’t got any recollection after the spin at 3:25, in the comments he describes how he gradually starts to drive sloppier and sloppier as he’s losing consciousness and awareness. At the end, he’s barely hanging in there and can’t function anymore. You can hear him commenting in English, how he’s just scared and scared when he manages to pull off the track.

Apparently the sealing between the midship engine and the cabin was iffy, and thus the carbon monoxide started to seep in.

BTW, that’s the track where I wrecked my car. The guy is barely conscious and still he drives better than me.” 

This MR2 apparently has the greatest sealing T-Tops of all time.

[Source: YouTube]