Dave Jarman: “HANS device saved the day”

Dave Jarman has praised the work of modern safety equipment following his incident at Brands Hatch in the Super Touring Car Challenge.

The Nissan Primera driver was involved in a first lap crash with the Audi A4 of Paul Smith and had to be taken away from the scene by stretcher to a nearby hospital with suspected back injuries. Tests later showed that Jarman had suffered whiplash in the incident, which he says could have been much worse had he not been wearing a HANS device.

“I’m alright,” Jarman told TouringCarTimes. “It was whiplash into my back that was the problem. Thank goodness I had a HANS device on, that saved the day I can tell you.

“It was probably about 60mph straight in, I was on the back of the BMW either Harry [Whale] or Mark Smith and basically Paul had come on to the track. First thing I saw was about a car length’s in front the Audi facing me and it was straight in. I had a bit of pain in my back, and that’s what all the fuss was about getting me out the car.”

While Jarman escaped the incident battered and bruised, his ex-Matt Neal Nissan Primera was not so lucky, suffering substantial front end damage following the collision with the ex-Christian Abt Audi A4.

“It’s fixable,” Jarman continued. “Obviously all the carbon’s done at the front, but I’m lucky enough to have most of that stuff, splitters, light unit, airboxes and snouts and that sort of thing. Other than that it’s a bit of damage to the inner wings and the rails which, because those cars are built with no front structure basically, they always in an accident will suffer that sort of damage.

“I remember seeing various videos of Matt Neal having accidents in the day in that car. I remember particularly the first time out in Thruxton and [Team Dynamics technical director] Barry Plowman lifting the bonnet, you can see all the inner wings are stuffed so it was obviously something that needed to be repaired. There’s a bit of fabrication and some external panels but I think it was about time it had a bit of a facelift anyway. We’ll get it apart tomorrow when I get home and go from there.”