“Incredible.” “He’s in the wall.” “Get of the way.”

These are all words that were mumbled or yelled on the starting line as the South Georgia Motorsports Park safety crew rushed down the scene of the flaming, upside down Ford Mustang known as ‘The Shadow’ with world renowned wheelman, Stevie ‘Fast’ Jackson still strapped inside.

Jackson had staged up alongside eventual champion, DeWayne Mills for the quarter-final round of the highly contested No Mercy 7 radial extravaganza with two things on his mind: get the holeshot advantage and try to hold off the turbocharged monster in the opposite lane.

One of the many photographs that have spread across the web after the internet-breaking accident involving one of the top celebrities in the sport of doorslammer drag racing, Stevie ‘Fast’ Jackson.

As Jackson went into a wheelstand, the veteran driver caught the wheelstand quickly with a swift ‘blip’ of the loud pedal and went right back to the floorboard to try and stay ahead of the aforementioned Mills. Instead of the front end settling down like normal, all hell broke loose for the supercharged Ford Mustang. Behind the wheel, Jackson lost all bearings of where he was on the dragstrip and was just along for the ride until the Shadow landed back to Earth, nearly 400 feet past where it left the ground. Crashing back to the concrete and sliding on it’s lid, on fire, Jackson stayed calm and got out of the car uninjured. From the above interview, you can hear the fear and worry in Jackson’s voice when talking about fire explaining, “Fire is the most scary thing about drag racing; I’m petrified of it.”

The look in Jackson’s eyes says it all – fear of the unknown all while being strapped into a 3,000 pound race car flying through the air like a children’s kite on a playground.

The SGMP safety team got the fire out right as Jackson kicked the door open and rolled out of the battered Shadow, coming out in better condition than the car, showing that the safety equipment did it’s job. Jackson has a storied history with ‘The Shadow’ for many years in the grudge world and lately in the highly competitive Radial vs. The World category. With hands down the worst crash of his career behind him, there’s one thing for certain about Steve Jackson — the fire that was extinguished from The Shadow is now burning within Jackson to get back behind the wheel of yet another radial tire monster to prove that he may be down, but definitely not out.

Video Credit: 1320Video