Just one week out from the Castrol Edge Fast Fours & Rotaries Jamboree J19 (held this weekend in Australia), the Pac Performance team (who raced its MX-6 at the V 4&Rotary Nationals in NZ earlier this year) have been struck with a setback. Testing for the final time before J19 on the weekend, the car was looking good to lay down some solid 6-second time-slips. Unfortunately, disaster struck. After completing a 6-second pass, the officials called for the fire truck. Unfortunately, down the deep-end of the track, the new Pac Performance Mazda 6 caught fire. “One of the fuel fittings on the fuel rail has snapped, allowing fuel to spray inside the engine bay — and that’s never a good thing,” commented driver, Rocky Rehayem. “The fuel caught on fire almost immediately, and there was only one fire marshal at the end of the track. By the time the fire truck got to us and put the fire out, the damage was already done.”

While the damage looks minimal from the outside, beneath the carbon fibre skin there is a lot of damage to the engine bay. With just a week until Jamboree, the crew are frantically working throughout the night trying to repair the extensive carbon fibre damage and the data logging/engine management components that were burnt. With any luck, though, they’ll sort it for the coming weekend.