Leading F3 Australian Drivers’ Championship team R-Tek Motorsport has narrowly escaped disaster after a massive fire near their Wingfield premises in Northern Adelaide.

The inferno was sparked in the Mulhern Waste Oil depot yesterday morning, just 80-meters from R-Tek’s factory.

The fire raged until late last night before being brought under control by fire fighters, destroying several properties and several cars in the vicinity – disused oil and propellants causing several explosions to rock the area as they burned.

Fortunately it seems the fire jumped the R-Tek factory, which in addition to R-Tek’s four race cars and transporter, also houses Formula 3 Management’s operations material and infrastructure.

R-Tek team owner Ian Richards says that smoke damage is the only major concern following the fire.

“At one stage yesterday there were some pretty nervous moments, I can tell you,” said Richards

“We have not yet been able to access the site as there is still a huge exclusion zone around the centre of the fire, but we have been told the building is still there and everything inside is okay.

“My car was parked outside and I expect it to be pretty singed but as far as we can tell everything inside should be OK.

“We are hoping to get in this afternoon (Wednesday) to assess the damage which, we believe, will be limited to smoke damage inside the building.

“At this stage we expect to be operating business as usual by the end of the week and have our team in Tasmania for round two of the championship in three weeks time.”