by Simon Tulett

A racing driver has vowed to be back behind the wheel within weeks after a crash which saw his car catapult into the air, smash into a bridge and burst into flames at 157mph.

Chris van der Drift is lucky to be alive following the horror smash at Brands Hatch, which left his Superleague Formula car a shattered wreck.

Miraculously the 24-year-old New Zealander escaped with just a broken ankle, fractured shoulder blade, damaged ribs and injured hands.

He was battling with fellow driver Julien Jousse for fifth place in the closing stages of Sunday’s second race at the Fawkham circuit when he tried to overtake on the exit of the Surtees bend.

But as he used an engine boost to push past his front left wheel struck Jousse’s right rear, sending him skywards and into a bridge in mid-air.

The impact split his car in half and launched it into dizzying series of spins, before it caught fire and came to rest in the middle of the track on its side. The wreckage was narrowly missed by following cars as paramedics and stewards sprinted to help.

Speaking to the Messenger at Darent Valley Hospital, where van der Drift was treated after the crash, he said: “I just remember waking up and I knew my ankle was busted. I managed to wriggle out a little bit sideways because it hurt so much, and then they dragged me out.

“I suppose thinking about it now I could easily not be here.”

A racer since the age of eight, van der Drift had been enjoying his first season in Superleague Formula, just a class below Formula 1, and already has his eye on a return to action in Italy in five weeks if he has recovered in time.

“This was my biggest crash, but I’ll be back on the track. I’m not scared about it. The only time I’ve been scared was when my brakes fell off in a race and I crashed into the tyre wall.”

Van der Drift has been transferred to a specialist hospital in Milton Keynes for plastic surgery on a severely grazed finger.

• See how another driver, Francisco Carvalho, miraculously survived another crash at Brands Hatch recently