Auto racing is absolutely one of the most dangerous and adrenaline pumping sports in the world. Fans can go crazy for their favorite driver or team and have enormous reactions when the racers make it toward the front while crashes can be absolutely devastating. There hardly any other sport with a split second decision or movement can cause a competitor to go from the front the back of the back. Around the world there are tracks everywhere dedicated to our love of competition in high powered vehicles that are meant to carry us at the fastest speeds possible.
As much as auto racing is fun and a rush for the fans, the racers themselves are pristine and finely tuned athletes. They may not have the body composition of an Olympic swimmer and might not have the muscle mass of an NFL player, but they have the fast twitch muscles and control needed to make multiple decisions at once to put their car in the best position to win. Nowhere else in sports is the equipment around the athlete as important as the athlete themselves than in auto racing, but this pair has to be in perfect harmony to finish a race in the lead.
Laurens Vanthoor experienced what happens when your car has simply had and decided to quit on you. During the FIA GT World Cup race that you see in this video, his Audi R8 decided it was time to quit just before the final crossing of the finish line was reached. As you can see by the video, the rear end got loose; Laurens hit the wall and skidded on the roof of the car to a stop. The wing in the back of the car was instantly ripped off when car hit and eventually the car came to a halt.
As you look at the video two things may come to mind. First, you hope for the safety of Vanthoor and wonder if the car is going to catch fire. We’ve seen it many times, a race car catches fire and the driver is trapped inside. The second thing you wonder is what the final order is going to be. Laurens was in second coming to the finish, but it appears he didn’t cross the final finish line and may end up losing several places in the race because of this crash and the number of cars passing his now wrecked R8.
Thankfully, Laurens Vanthoor was able to get out of the car and seemed to be unharmed. I’m sure he had a few bumps and bruises, but the safety systems in place on these and other race cars have come along to the point of being able to protect the driver from nearly any massive injuries. As for where he placed, he won the race. Because of the rules for this race, the leader of the previous lap is the winner and the current lap in which he crashed doesn’t count. That’s certainly winning a race the hard way.
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