vd Poele escapes 195mph Bentley test crash.

Eric van de Poele was counting his blessings last night, after surviving what Bentley team manager Richard Lloyd called "the highest speed accident anyone can witness".

The Belgian was testing one of the team's 2002-spec EXP Speed 8 cars at Paul Ricard in the south of France when a mechanical failure sent the car off the road at the quick Signes corner. Such was its momentum, the car became airborne, flying through crash barriers before coming to rest, upside-down, against a concrete retaining wall.

The team is convinced that the decision to build a closed-cockpit prototype probably save van de Poele's life in the 195mph incident, as the roof stood up well to the impact and allowed the former single-seater driver to walk away unhurt. Indeed, so light were his injuries, the Belgian was back testing in the team's second car later in the day.

"That is probably the highest speed accident anyone can witness," Lloyd told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper, "Eric had experienced an 'uneasy' feeling for a few laps before [the crash], but we were 14 hours into the test without missing a beat, so he was not too worried about it."

Asked if he knew what had caused the car to go off the road, Lloyd admitted that he was waiting to hear back from the engineers.

"There are investigations going on into the cause of the accident, but we know it was not tyre failure."

The accident is unlikely to curtail either Bentley or van de Poele's preparations for the Le Mans 24 Hours, the practice weekend for which takes place in France next weekend. The 24 Hours itself is not until the weekend of 15-16 June.
The accident is unlikely to curtail either Bentley or van de Poele's preparations for the Le Mans 24 Hours, the practice weekend for which takes place in France next weekend. The 24 Hours itself is not until the weekend of 15-16 June. The Belgian finished third for Bentley in last year's race.