FOUR teenagers were pulled to safety from the wreckage of their burning car by a racing team returning home from a track.
Members of the Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari team, along with a passing gritter driver, risked their lives after seeing the vehicle catch fire in a crash.
The Vauxhall Corsa was being driven in icy conditions by an 18-year-old when it skidded and veered into the path of oncoming traffic. It collided head-on with a Renault Clio with a learner driver and an instructor, and caught fire.
The driver and another 18year-old youth, along with two girls, one 16 and the other 17, were trapped until the members of the racing team managed to rescue them.
The racers were driving on the A904 towards Linlithgow in West Lothian on Wednesday night, after a test run at the Knockhill track in Fife had been cancelled because of freezing conditions.
Stewart Roden, 47, team owner of Scuderia Ecosse, based at Broxburn, said: "The car was already on fire by the time we jumped out of our vehicle. The car was flattened, with four people trapped. We knew they were going to burn to death unless we got them out really quickly."
Chris Niarchos, one of the racing drivers, ripped off a passenger door and was able to lift out a female suffering from internal injuries. Colleagues Stuart Robertson and John Donaldson, engineers, tried to douse the flames with a fire extinguisher. While they tried to fight the flames, they were helped by Stephen Hunter, 29, a road gritter driver who had been working on the nearby M9. Together they managed to free the two front-seat passengers from the wreckage.
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