R8 Driver Trades Horrifying Crash for Slightly Less Horrifying Crash at Nurburgring 24

Although racing has made remarkable and heroic strides in safety technology, there’s still inevitable danger to driving at high speeds on a tight track with other people. To wit, Dries Vanthoor’s recent crash at the 24 Hours of Nurburgring.

Audi was mostly disappointed by its results at this weekend’s race, but it could only be satisfied with the performance of its R8 following Audi Sport Team WRT’s crash during the race.

The incident happened in the evening when the Audi’s driver, Dries Vanthoor, tried to avoid a car that was all but stopped on an apex. Vanthoor nearly pulled the move off, threading the needle between the slow car and a lower-class Cayman GT4.

Unfortunately, he just clipped the Cayman, which may have caused a puncture, put one wheel in the grass and lost the back end at the next kink.

Ultimately, even though crash looked like it was anything but comfortable for the Belgian driver, it definitely wasn’t as horrifying as it could have been if he’d run straight into the slowed car.

Coming off an Audi victory last year, though, the event was still a disappointment for Audi Sport since fifth was the best any of its cars could manage.

“On the occasion of Audi Sport customer racing’s tenth anniversary we’d have liked to have shown more to our many fans in terms of the sport,” said Chris Reinke, Head of Audi Sport customer racing. “Our customer teams and the drivers were well prepared and battled for top positions in three different classes. That’s why the results are all the more disappointing. The conditions were extremely difficult, as the interruption of the race showed as well.”

[via: Road & Track]

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