Race car driver Steven Elmslie has died as a result of injuries sustained in an accident at Wing-N-It restaurant last Thursday, Rhode Island Hospital has confirmed.

Mr. Elmslie, 51, of Bristol, who had been listed in critical condition since the crash into the restaurant's smoke house last week, died of internal injuries Thursday.

He had been testing his new drag race car in the parking lot of Elmco Tool Company on Peter Road, just behind Wing-N-It. As he and his crew of mechanics made adjustments to the engine, witnesses say that the car began a ‘burnout’ in which the tires spin while the car remains in place. On a racetrack, the maneuver is used to spin the rear tires to heat them up for better traction before the start of a race. Typically, the car remains in place while the friction of the rubber on the pavement creates a smoke show of burning rubber.

In this case, the tires caught and Mr. Elmslie apparently lost control of the vehicle. The car bolted from the Elmco parking lot, across Peter Road, where it hit an embankment and went airborne, before crashing into the smokehouse behind the restaurant.

First responders pulled Mr. Elmslie from the wreckage and resuscitated him before he was transported to Rhode Island Hospital where he underwent surgery for internal injuries.

Read Mr. Elmslie's obituary here.