Local star Nick Saunders had a big accident on his last run of the day on Monday. His car appeared to lose a wheel (arrowed in red, top right) causing him to spin and nearly roll. He was not badly hurt but the wheel bounced over the heads of competitors who were sitting at the top having completed their runs. (Picture by Andrew Le Poidevin, 0834752)

NICK SAUNDERS was back at his IT job yesterday after surviving a 100mph smash rated as one of the biggest shunts seen at the top of the Val des Terres.

Saunders, 35, currently the quickest man on four wheels in local racing, smashed into the grass bank at the top of the hill after a wheel inexplicably fell off the back of his blue Reynick racing car as he came into the last corner.

The wheel bounced spectacularly over astonished fellow competitors standing by an ambulance at the top of the slip road before coming to rest in the bushes behind.

In July Henry Surtees, the son of former world motor racing champion John Surtees, was killed at Brands Hatch when a loose wheel smashed into his head.

But local racing officials are adamant that such incidents are very rare and all the safety measures in place on the Guernsey hill are very adequate.

Bill Cohu, president of the Guernsey Motor Cycle and Car Club, which staged Monday’s meeting, said losing a wheel in such fashion was ‘very, very rare’.

‘It is very unusual for a wheel to leave the car. It was just one of those things. Fortunately, it doesn’t happen very often.’

There will be an investigation.