An accident at the famed Nurburgring Nordschleife racetrack has taken the lives of two people. The tragic incident took place on Wednesday, August 9, during an Industry Pool testing session that was closed to the public.
Goodyear confirmed that the deceased were working for it at the time of the accident. In a statement to media, it said that it was complying with local authorities in their investigation, which is not of a criminal nature at this time.
While the driver of the vehicle has not yet been named, the passenger was 39-year-old racecar driver Christian Franck, reports The Luxembourg Times. Munich’s The Merkur indicates that Porsche has confirmed that the car involved in the accident was manufactured by it, but is not able to provide further details at this time.
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Unconfirmed reports suggest that the car involved in the accident was a last-generation Porsche 911 Carrera S, meaning that it would have been made between 2011 and 2019. Witnesses say that the car flipped multiple times as a result of the accident, and that the occupants were ejected.
The Nurburgring confirmed that the incident happened at Tiergarten, a series of S-bends that follow a high-speed bend at the end of the long Döttinger Hohe straight. Following the accident, tourist drives, which often follow Industry Pool sessions, were cancelled.
While crashes like these tend to be rare during the closed, industry sessions, accidents at the track are anything but unusual. DW reports that there were 77 injury-causing accidents during tourist rides at the Nurburgring last year, including one fatality.
