<WOB>Good Reason NOT to Get a Porsche GT1

["Greg Koenig" <gregk@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Those of you with Speedvision, and nothing better to do, should currently be
watching the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.  So far, it has been an amazing
endurence race (compared to the real Le Mans and a lot of other endurence
races).  However, around H7, Mark Simo's PTG M3 #10 was leading in GT3 by 5
laps when something broke going into turn 11.  He went off at about 120 and
smacked (Tom Milner said the tel. shows the car's impact at 50mph) the tire
barriers.  He hit hard enough that he was buried under tires and had to
climb out the window.  He was Ok, the car performed very well for the kind
of hit it took. Simo was shaken but very glad he was in a BMW.
Earlier in the race, an indipendent BMW driver wasn't so lucky.  I do not
recall his name or which team he was with, but the car (an M3 or a 328 that
looked like an M3).  The driver suffered a broken rib and a punctured lung.
All in all, it has not been the best day for BMW, but it has been an even
worse day for the factory Porsche team.
The #26 GT1 Evolution II car (the same car that won Le Mans this year), was
close on the tail of the #77 LMP Porsche and was running 2 laps ahead of
everyone.  It looked like a Porsche runnaway victory, until the car did a
backflip.  Yes, the car caught air and turned itself into an airplain.  The
thing got about 25ft into the air.  It looped completely around and landed
on the tail.  The driver (who's name I also forgot) walked away, though he
was badly shaken.  If you get ESPN II or Speedvision, I would expect that
they would probably show this accident.  This is the only motor racing off
that I have ever scene that sent shivers down my spine. 

Greg

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