A DRIVER has escaped serious injury after being thrown from his speedboat in a 160km/h crash on Lake Hume.

Geoff Sutton had been racing in the Horsepower on the Hume event on Saturday afternoon when his boat suffered a mechanical problem.

The impact flicked Mr Sutton from the boat and he landed in the water before being rescued by emergency services.

He was taken to Albury hospital and was released about 9am yesterday.

The boat, powered by a supercharged V8 engine, was pulled from the lake on Saturday afternoon and was being towed back to Sydney yesterday.

A man who filmed the crash, who asked to be known only as Ron, described the crash as “spectacular”.

“I go down there each year to watch the race,” he said.

“It was the first race I watched for the day and I was just lucky to capture it.”

Event organiser Richard Cleaver said the crash was an unfortunate reality of motorsport and was a relatively common occurrence.

“That was the worst incident on the day,” he said.

“Unfortunately, that’s what happens in power boating or any sort of motorsport.

“We had an incident response plan and it worked fabulously.”

Mr Cleaver said he was awaiting a report to see what may have caused the incident and was trying to contact Mr Sutton yesterday.

The crash occurred in relatively calm conditions and the injured racer received bruising, soft tissue injuries and cracked ribs.

“The racers wear floatation devices designed to do exactly what they did,” Mr Cleaver said.

“His head was kept above the water and the divers weren’t more than 200 metres away from the accident.

“They were on the spot instantly and jumped into the water and put him onto a stretcher.”

Mr Cleaver said 19 boats had competed in the event with about 300 people attending.