Salles involved in fatal stock car accident.

CART Champ Car irregular Gualter Salles was left shaken by his involvement in a fatal accident, in which a journalism student died, during one of his Brazilian V8 Stock Car forays at the weekend.

The Brazilian, who now divides his time between running - and driving for - his own team in Brazil and sporadic outings with Dale Coyne's CART squad, left the road at the end of the main straight at the Campo Grande circuit, slamming into barriers behind which 19-year old Raphael Lima Pereira, working for Race magazine, was standing.

Pereira was attended to at the scene of the accident by the V8 series medical team, headed by Dr Dino Altmann, but was clearly in a serious condition and later died in hospital.

"The victim had dilated pupils and suffered a cardio-respiratory arrest," the medics revealed, "We attempted resuscitation, but the clinical compromise was already too great."

Salles was clearly shaken by the incident, which began when his car was contacted by that of Nin? Figueiredo. The Brazilian was reported to have been in tears even before climbing out of his car, having realised the scale of the situation.

"I don't have the words to express the effect this accident has had," he said, "My feelings and prayers go to Raphael's family.

It has been suggested that Pereira was standing in an area out of bounds to the media, and protected only by a tyre wall, rather than a solidly fixed barrier.

"We give clear instructions to all people holding credentials, but I believe that the victim did not respect the security limits," promoter Carlos Col told the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper.

Pablo Scaglione, president of the Brazilian motorsport confederation CBA, later said that, in the account he had been given of the incident, "race director Carlos Montagner had not seen anything that would have hindered the start of the race [such as an individual in a prohibited area]", but said that "after the start to start, the youngster had invaded the area of high risk".