Driver Killed At Speedway

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30978, 7 February 1966, Page 1

Driver Killed At Speedway

(New Zealand Press Association) NEW PLYMOUTH, Feb. 6. A speedway driver was killed when his car somersaulted and crashed into the safety fence after touching the wheels of another car at the Taranaki Midget Car Racing Club’s meeting at New Plymouth on Saturday.

He was: Leslie Rusling. aged 22, single, of Victoria street, Kaponga. He was the son of Mr and Mrs F. G. Rusling, of Wanganui, and was employed by a sawmill in Kaponga. He suffered head injuries and was dead on arrival at the New Plymouth Hospital. Rusling was coming into a comer when his car touched a car driven by Trevor Gray, of New Plymouth. Gray’s car crashed through the safety fence, bounced high into the air. and then plunged nose first into the ground 15 feet outside the

fence before coming to rest upside down. The dead man’s car somer saulted twice, hit the safety fence with tremendous force —it smashed several thick planks—rested momentarily upside down on the top of the fence and then fell back on to the track on its wheels. It is believed that Rusling suffered his injuries by striking his head against one of the lighting standards around the track as the car somersaulted into the safety fence. Gray crawled badly shaken but unhurt from underneath his overturned car.