It has not been a good few weeks for sports car racing in terms of accidents. We saw two Audis fly at Circuit de la Sarthe during the recent 24 Hours of Le Mans – Alan McNish went into the catch fence at the Dunlop bridge early, and Mike Rockenfeller had a horrible accident during the night that destroyed his car – and this accident today at Road America during the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series.
Road America is one of my favourite race tracks in the world, perhaps the closest circuit in North America to the Circuit de la Sarthe. It’s 4.048 miles of asphalt through the Wisconsin countryside, long straights connected to fast corners with lots of overtaking opportunities. It’s a rarity among racetracks these days, and a real throwback to the old days.
And it’s fast. Lethally fast, as we saw in today’s race. The video below shows what happens when a Chevrolet Camaro runs out of breaks into turn one at RA, slamming into the Mazda in front of him. See the Chevy destroy the tire wall, then, sickeningly, flip up and over the catch fence, and down off the race circuit into the Wisconsin countryside. See what I mean:
Incredibly, the driver of that machine, Gunter Schaldach, walked away without a scratch. He climbed back up the reverse wall, through the hole that his car punched on the way through, and walked back to the pit. It’s an incredible testament to the strong car that the Pratt and Miller organisation built to come and race. This accident could’ve been a lot worse.
The driver of the Mazda, Joe Foster, was extricated from his car after the track workers cut through the front windscreen and the roof, and was taken to a nearby hospital on a stretcher for further evaluation. The good news was that he was talking to the track crew, begging them not to cut through the rest of the car. There’s a typical race car owner for you!
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