With so many safety developments in the motorsports world, it’s easy to forget just how dangerous racing can be. This incident serves as a stark reminder of how fast things can go wrong.
During the recent sixth race of the VLN endurance championship at the Nurburgring track in Germany, American racing driver John Shoffner from J2 Racing lost control of his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup shortly after the Flugplatz straight.
In the video, Shoffner can be seen entering the corner sideways and slides across a patch of grass, kicking up dirt and sending him into an uncontrollable roll. Over the next five seconds, the GT3 rolls no less than 10 times before eventually coming to a rest on its roof on the side of the track.
Shoffner was taken to hospital immediately after the mind-blowing crash, but J2 Racing says he wasn’t in any pain. Remarkably, he didn’t even suffer any noteworthy injuries!
The fact that Shoffner wasn’t injured serves as a testament to how incredibly safe modern racing cars are. Despite viciously rolling over multiple times, the 911’s cockpit appears intact, thanks largely to the strong roll cage designed to mitigate the affects of crashes just like this.
In past decades, the car could have been torn to absolute shreds and the driver would have more than a few bruises to show for it. If, that is, he wasn’t very seriously injured – or worse…
https://youtu.be/5qAtkf2jAZc