Drag Racer Gwynn Stable After Crash : Motor sports: He has surgery to save his left arm and might be partially paralyzed as result of accident in England.

Darrell Gwynn, one of the most successful top-fuel drag racers ever, remained in stable condition Tuesday after an accident Sunday in England that mangled his left arm and might have left him partially paralyzed.

Gwynn, 28, underwent extensive surgery to save his arm, which apparently was pinned beneath his dragster after it crashed during a practice run down the Santa Pod strip in Bedford, England.

Doctors at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury, where Gwynn was taken, said they could not determine the extent of any paralysis until swelling went down around his spinal cord.

“All things considered, Darrell is in excellent spirits,” his father, Jerry Gwynn, said through a spokesman. “He has some very serious neck and back injuries along with the arm.

“The next few days will be critical. He has some feeling in his right hand, which is encouraging, but has no feeling below the waist. The doctors said that was not unusual after an accident like he had.”

Jerry Gwynn has been his son’s crew chief and team manager since Darrell began racing in 1980. Before that, Jerry had been a champion racer in the sportsman classes.

Gwynn will be hospitalized in England from four to 14 weeks, a hospital spokesman said.

Gwynn, who was planning to drive in an exhibition match race against Al Segrini later Sunday, had traveled to England to deliver his 1989 model dragster to Harlan Thompson, an English driver.

“We’d already sold the car, and Darrell was going to run an exhibition,” Jerry Gwynn said. “We checked it out at West Palm Beach (Fla.) before we brought it over here, and it checked out fine.”

The car is the same one that Gwynn drove to victory in the 1989 Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla., and won six races with in 1988. He drove it in the Winternationals last February in Pomona, but put it on the market after getting his 1990 model.

Gwynn was running alone on the track and had planned to shut off halfway down the quarter-mile runway, according to his father.

The car veered left, split its frame, struck a guard rail, burst into flames and slid down the track with Gwynn’s arm apparently pinned underneath.

Darrell’s mother, Joan, left for England from their home in Miami after hearing of the crash. She is treasurer of the Drag Racing Assn. for Women (DRAW), which was organized to help injured drivers and their families.

Lisa Hurst, Darrell’s fiancee and last year’s Orange Bowl queen, was also at the hospital.

Gwynn is one of the youngest top fuel drivers and has been known as “the Kid” since he made his debut in the sport’s fastest class in 1981.

In five events this season, he won the Gatornationals in Gainesville, where he defeated Eddie Hill in the finals. He was top qualifier three times, including in the Supernationals at Baytown, Tex., where he set a National Hot Rod Assn. elapsed time record of 4.909 seconds. He lost to Frank Bradley in the finals at Baytown.