A nasty storm tore through parts of New Jersey Thursday afternoon, causing chaos at the Formula Drift event at Englishtown. It was particularly gnarly for Jeff Jones, who returned to the paddock to find a tree had fallen on his Z, puncturing the windshield and crushing the roof. Nobody was hurt in the incident, but the damage to the car was enough for Jones to rule out its participation in this weekend’s event.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Formula DRIFT (@formulad)
Jones shared photos and videos of the damage on Instagram, and even took over the official Formula D live stream to let fans know he was unharmed (Warning: the clip above contains some colorful language). He even jokingly asks if anybody has a spare drift car that he can enter into the event on Saturday.
From the up-close pics, it appears that the culprit was a mature but diseased oak tree. It crushed much of the roof over the Z’s passenger compartment and blew out the windshield entirely. Enough of it was resting on the car to completely bottom out its suspension.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Jeff Jones (@jeffjonesracing)
The good news is that the entire front clip of the car appears relatively undamaged, so everything under hood should have survived relatively unscathed. Even the driver-side door still opens.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Jeff Jones (@jeffjonesracing)
According to NJ.com, local weather forecasters have ruled out the likelihood that the damage was caused by a tornado, suggesting instead that it was caused by simple (but no less dangerous) straight-line winds. Local observers reported gusts exceeding 60 mph between 4:00 and 4:30 PM Thursday as the system moved through.
Got flora crashing through your drift car’s windshield? Let us know at tips@thedrive.com!
Byron is a contributing writer and auto reviewer with a keen eye for infrastructure, sales and regulatory stories.
Facebook Conversations