Heilige Scheiße!!! 15 car pileup at the 'Ring

[G.Irish]

Apparently a car dropped coolant and the corner worker who was supposed to be watching that section of track went home early 

http://www.bridgetogantry.com/freak-14-c...#more-6923

[JPolen01]

Damn that red GT3 coming in hot right into the guard rail!

[WRXtranceformed]

That seems like a super bad idea to park your car on the side of that track

[Senor_Taylor]

Yeah as well intentioned as the camera guy was, I think he should have slowed down and attempted to continue at least to the other side of the crash. Instead, he reduced the safe space to brake before the real issue.

I may be talked out of my ass, however, as I'm not qualified to speak on the matter.

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[G.Irish]

Yeah I don't know what the proper protocol is there. It's technically a public road, so the rules for responding to a public crash may apply. But yeah, I would be extremely leery of getting out of my car in a spot like that, even if I could get behind a guard rail. Might have been better to park it past the incident. I do think that the guy waving people down may have prevented some more serious impacts. Several of the cars lost control at the kink once they saw him, but at least they were slowing down (albeit while sliding backwards). Had they come down in there at full speed it definitely would've been worse.

Either way that was a fucking hideous incident. Supremely shitty for a corner worker to leave early like that, that could've caused a fatality.

[ScottyB]

so being a public road, is the corner worker a state employee or is he hired by the property? i'm trying to figure out who is beholden to the potential consequences for not doing their job and causing an insane amount of personal property damage and probably injuries as a result. i'm sure you have to sign a waiver to drive it, that removes the track's liability so i'm sure those cars are total, uninsured losses right?

this kind of thing makes me leery of ever attempting the ring, even in a rental or riding a ring taxi. its just so huge, and so difficult to predict that stuff like this is bound to happen. even moreso with today's level of horsepower.

[G.Irish]

I think if you do a track day at the Ring, or maybe Touristenfahrten on a weekday you'll probably be ok. Weekend Touristenfahrten is madness.

[Senor_Taylor]

Those aren't real words

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[JPolen01]

I seriously don't even understand how anybody attempts these tourist drives. It looks crazy enough when NASA mixes the run groups in the Thunder races. On the ring you can have some guy in a fully prepped GT3 RS flying by some dude in a rental Daewoo? How are there any rules?

[BLINGMW]

What corner workers? There weren't any when I went. 
I don't know protocol either other than you're supposed to stop to help when you see a wreck, but yeah, I would have gone past it that was nuts. Each car that stopped further up made it worse!

[GTBrandon]

It’s my belief that corner workers are there to make sure everyone is as safe as possible by knowing information that can’t be seen by drivers. That doesn’t mean though that you are gaurneteed to have a safe track just because some guy with some flags and a radio says so. Without track insurance, the moment you drive on the grid you are forefeting the right to blame anyone but yourself for damage to you or tour property. It’s extremely unfortunate that someone with such a highly important job went home and did not have someone cover his/her shift, but i’m sure there are a lot of details we don’t know. Like maybe there was supposed to be someone there and the guy who left was assured he would be replaced promptly, or maybe he’s just a selfish asshole who let this happen for no reason other than his own. Either way I’m curious what the ring will do following this event with the way they employ workers and if this will cause another “this track is too unsafe for the public” fiasco all over again.

[Senor_Taylor]

I wasn't even aware the ring had corner workers. The whole thing is so foreign to me. It's like public roads that you pay to drive on like a race track? Is this every day? Can anyone show up and drive? Do you have to do a classroom or training? Is there a tech inspection?



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[G.Irish]

So the Nordschleife is technically a public road. On a day that they do Touristenfahrten, anyone can buy a 1-lap ticket to take one lap of the Ring. This is called a Bridge to Gantry lap (you shut it down when you get to the Gantry overpass of the track).

So on Touristenfahrten days you can bring a motorcycle, camper van, whatever, as long as it is legal for German roads. You pass on the left and ONLY on the left, and you're supposed to put on your turn signal to the right to invite people to pass, but it is not compulsory. I've heard there are some corner workers now but I don't think they're everywhere.

On a Nurburgring track day, it's much like a track day here where a track day outfit rents the whole track and only people who have registered for the day can drive. There's a driver's meeting, wristbands, corner workers, etc. Depending on the group, you do not pass without a signal, but you still only pass on the left. No classroom sessions or run groups though, they just assume everyone knows their shit.