The DeltaWing's Awesome Rolex 24 Ends After Smashing Into Stationary Car On Track
Today’s Rolex 24 at Daytona was supposed to be all about the Ford GT’s return to endurance racing, but the DeltaWing was rather stealing the show. Thanks to heroics from British driver Katherine Legge, the DeltaWing surged from last place (it didn’t qualify due to poor weather) to first in the Prototype category.
Even after Legge stalled the car after a pit stop, she pushed back into the lead, and after a penalty later in the racing for spinning the wheels while the car was raised in the pits, it was still pushing on strong. That was until it smashed into the back of a stationary car stranded on track at turn one with Andy Meyrick at the wheel.
There have been question marks over race control’s handling of the situation, since the stranded car was in the middle of the track in the middle of a corner, with only one waved yellow flag to warn approaching drivers - there were no flashing yellow lights further up the track, and a full course yellow wasn’t called until after the DeltaWing had crashed.
It’s a shame to see such a unique vehicle having a successful weekend cut short by such an unfortunate event, but Legge’s stint showed the promise of the lightweight DeltaWing. The future’s looking bright for the American setup.
Comments
Awesome!
here, take my downvote :)
Should have been a full course yellow long before this happened.
This seems to be the (right) opinion of everyone except the person who had to make the call, they clearly don’t want the Deltawing to win a race :(
Aaaah..nothing really bad.
Just a front wing to change..
Deltawing team: one day…one day…we’ll show them
I watch this live and was not happy about the fact.
I was watching live as well and I saw it coming as soon as the Delta entered the picture.
That crash was stupid. Earlier there was GT that wasn’t even stopped way off the track and they put out the yellow flag.
Then we have a car stopped in the MIDDLE of the track at night with no lights and they leave it green.
They did have local yellows around turn one so it wasn’t a full green. They didn’t throw the full course yellow because the PC team that was parked in the track said the car had restarted and was about to move under its own power before being hit by the Delta
I swear the delta wing is cursed, crashed at Le mans twice, and the zeod crashed two. I love the car though!
The Zeod? Hahaha don’t make me laugh. That car just ripped off the Deltawing. Even though Panoz were building pretty much the entire Deltawing, they still let Nissan put their name on it. But when the Panoz team said that Nissan’s services were no longer required, Nissan stole all the Deltawing’s technical info and used it to build the Zeod. The Zeod never deserved to win. And Panoz’s lawyers discovered a couple of incriminating documents that Nissan had, so now they might be taking Nissan to court over the issue. I think that is why Nissan killed the Zeod, to try and settle up with Panoz.
I look at it this way: no matter what happens on track, you have to race the conditions. Whether it’s wet, windy, or there’s a car in the middle of a corner, the best drivers have to adapt. Unfortunate, yes, but it’s part of the sport.
I was watching it live when it happened, I thought they should have thrown a full course yellow. However, there was an interview with one of the lead marshals and he said that the car that was stopped had restarted again. They were in contact with the PC team and were hoping to get the car moving before needing a full course yellow. Also the Delta Wing driver said he couldn’t hear his spotter over the radio telling him that the PC was parked there
First I was like: That couldn’t be that big of a crash
Then I realised something, this is in slow motion.
Topics
Sponsored Posts