New jobs are always rough and it appears Top Gear’s incoming host has discovered this first hand.
According to the BBC, Freddie Flintoff was involved in an accident over the weekend while filming an episode of the show. Flintoff was behind the wheel of a Subaru Brat and was reportedly racing seven other vehicles around Mansfield Town Centre.
Flintoff successfully managed to go around the course at least one, but on his next lap things went wrong. As you can see in the video, the host was going pretty quick and didn’t complete the turn. This caused the Subaru to go crashing through some hay bales and plastic barricades, before slamming into a tent.
The crash doesn’t look too bad and Flintoff quickly drove away from the scene. While we can’t see any front end damage, it appears the rear quarter panel was dented.
Also Read: Matt LeBlanc Is Leaving Top Gear, Who Should Replace Him?
There’s no word on what caused the accident, but the roads were wet so that might have been contributing factor. Regardless, the BBC confirmed no one was injured in the accident and “filming completed as planned.”
It’s probably not how Flintoff planned to launch his Top Gear career, but Mansfield mayor Kate Allsop joked “To know this is the town where Freddie Flintoff drove into a market stall. We should actually name that stall after him – it’s going to be such an icon.”
As we reported last year, Flintoff will be joining Top Gear for Series 27. The former cricketer will be joined by comedian Paddy McGuinness and the duo will effectively replace Matt LeBlanc and Rory Reid.
There’s no word on when that season will air, but Series 26 – the last featuring LeBlanc and Reid – will return on February 17th.
H/T to Road & Track
https://youtu.be/zjlsUGF7d0E