An exotic car spontaneously bursting into flames on the street, like the new Porsche GT3 likes to do, is a tragedy. A race car burning to the ground on the race track, well, that is still sad, but also quite exciting. It’s been a while since we last saw a proper fire at a racing event, but the 12 hours of Sebring this weekend made up for it with a spectacular one.

The car in question is Ben Keating’s SRT Viper GT3-R which caught fire on lap 13 of the race. The cause of the fire has not been announced yet, but the car was not involved in any accident or mishap prior to the incident.

Keating escaped the fire with no injuries, but the car burned to the ground and damaged a part of the track as well.

This definitely would have a negative effect on morale at SRT. As bad as it is to lose one of your race cars completely, they are also dealing with sluggish sales of the road-going SRT Viper, which is even worse. There are reports that Chrysler has suspended the production the car due to lack of demand. Viper has been saved from the brink of death once before. They may not be able to do it twice.