Chip Robinson had just passed Lyn St. James' Mustang in Turn 1 and was headed toward the famous Riverside esses with clear sailing ahead. Doc Bundy in a GTP Corvette tried to pass Lyn St. James in her GTP Mustang Probe and Jaguar into narrow left hander Turn 1 at very high speed at Riverside is not a place where you try to pass equal strength cars. In milliseconds, tires squealed and cars grinded against each other as a big, long cloud of dust formed. Chip Robinson's Jaguar careened into the outside wall and the momentum took him along the wall for about 200 yards while the it disenagrated. Lyn St. James' Probe flipped violently into the air as the car's body panels tore apart and were launched into the air. Her Ford Probe came to a sudden stop on the track, but had landed on its roof. Everyone in eye sight waited for the talented Lyn St. James to slowly exit her demolished race machine. Then the Probe erupted into smoke and flames. Then Lyn climb out of the cockpit. She was swarmed by the rescue/track workers. She was okay!
As Chip Robinson said:
"All I could think of was 'Why did she hit me?' he said in recalling the accident called by many veteran Riverside observers as one of the most spectacular and terrifying in the track's 30-year history. "I never saw Doc. I never knew he was anywhere around."
But it was Doc Bundy who triggered the three-car crash in which St. James' car burned to the ground, Robinson's took off like a tumbleweed and Bundy's Corvette smashed into a retaining wall and burst into flames.
"Right after it happened, I got out and started looking for Lyn," Robinson said. "I wanted to know why she had crowded me in that turn. I knew she knew I was there and I knew she knew it was a tight turn where you had to be extra careful.
"It wasn't until later, when I saw it on video, that I saw Doc get in where he shouldn't have been and bump Lyn into me. She had actually let me through, knowing I had the faster car. A second or two had passed after I went by when I felt a slight bump. The video showed that she barely caught me, but it was enough to get me sideways and the air got under the back end and I was like a paper airplane. The Jag just took off... and it was not a nice ride."
