Posted by Nicole Wakelin
It’s certainly not the goal of any driver, but crashes happen all the time in racing. Usually, when there’s a crash it’s only a few cars that are taken out of the action. At the recent Citroën DS3 Cup race, over half the field of racers managed to crash in the same corner.
The day started off dry, so the cars were all running on racing slicks designed for dry weather. If you’ve never seen what these tires look like, just imagine a tire with no tread. They’re ideal for driving fast on a perfectly dry track, but not so much for one that’s a little wet.
The track in Denmark wasn’t just a little wet before the crash, it was absolutely soaked after a sudden downpour. You can see folks in the stands in ponchos with umbrellas and cars running with their wipers on and their tires kicking up quite a spray.
While two cars drive along seeming just fine, the camera cuts back to the corner in question where three other cars have managed to slide right off the track and pile into the wall. Ouch. The camera lingers for a moment and we see more cars come around the corner and the small pileup becomes a huge one.
Car after car loses grip on the slick track and slides into the sand to smash into the growing pile of cars. It’s frightening to think of being in one of the cars as more come sliding into the fray. If you watch closely, you’ll see one driver pop his head out of his car, see more incoming, and then duck back inside to avoid being squished.
It’s a huge mess that eventually includes 11 of the 16 cars entered in the race. That’s more than half the field gone in a matter of seconds. The good news is the video shows most of the drivers hopping right out of their cars relatively unscathed. Officials stopped the race and only one minor injury was reported.
You might not being driving on racing slicks or pushing your car to its limits on a track, but remember this video the next time it rains. When the road is wet, slow it down a bit to be sure you don’t end up sliding off altogether.
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