During my time as an announcer for SCCA road races in New England, I went from knowing zero about the sport of having a decent understanding of it by the time I decided to concentrate my efforts on drag race work. I also developed a “feel” for certain things, like when some races were going to turn into rolling disaster areas. Often, this happened with the spec-Miata class competition because the cars were so evenly matched the talent levels of their drivers certainly were not. Within a couple laps of the start of practice sessions, you could normally tell if the weekend was going to go smooth or if it was going to be a smash ’em up affair. I am wondering if World Touring Car Championship officials got the same feeling before they threw the green flag at their recent in Macau, China.

More than 30 car began the race and 15 limped home to the finish. We’ve seen better finishing percentages from demolition derbies than that. There were a few big wrecks during the race, with the biggest coming on turn one of laps one when the entire field was bunched up very tight and fighting for position. The fact remains that even the best drivers in the world need a little room and a little time to react and avoid crashes. When the cars are packed in like sardines, they have neither of those things and it just becomes an orgy of flying parts and wrecked cars.

The second smash up is technically the second and third smash up. A wounded car was limping back to the pits when another competitor bashed into him for reasons that we still cannot figure out. The second car hit so hard that it ripped the suspension off one corner, threw the machine in the air and then it was left lying across the course in one of the most narrow bottlenecks the track had. The first group of cars to arrive stopped in plenty of time and then the fun begins. Drivers who are either not paying attention, texting, reveling in the signage on the walls or thinking about what’s for dinner begin driving right into the group of previously stopped cars. It is bizarre.

Even race car drivers have a bad day at the office now and again….this WTCC race in Macau, China made everyone look like they were experiencing a collective case of brain fade!

NOTE: The announcing is all in Chinese so if that is a problem for you, crank the volume down. 

The first video shows the opening lap crash and the second one shows the Benny Hilll style pileup after the slow moving car was struck from behind –