He was subbing for James Golding at the third round of the series as part of the Darwin Triple Crown weekend in the Northern Territory.

Golding was poised to race the #31 Ford Mustang with Garry Rogers Motorsport but elected to focus on his Supercars commitments with PremiAir Racing in the #31 Chevrolet Camaro.

In the second practice session at Hidden Valley, Cleary was driving on the front straight and had just pulled fourth gear when flames engulfed the left-hand front corner of the car.

Despite the frightening scene, Cleary was able to extract himself and suffered some slight burns around the face.

“There was really no warning on the gear change. The left side of the cabin just started bursting the flames,” he said.

“I stopped it really quickly, couldn’t really see anything. The window melted, which helped with the escape though. Luckily, the marshals were all there.

“I was getting pretty toasty in there; it was like a pizza oven.

“I’ve had a few crashes before, but that’s just like crashes, mostly cars. Always pretty safe now, you get to walk away, but that one was pretty scary.

The #31 Mustang is not expected to be repaired and raced this weekend.

Qualifying for the Trans Am Series is scheduled for 12:40 ACST.