The pace car, the safety car…whatever you call it, it’s job is to keep the drivers safe when things aren’t all right on the track. Whether it’s a NASCAR track or a road course, the job is the same: the pace car gets out in front of the leader and dictates the pace for the rest of the racers. Radio contact with spotters and officials keep things nice and tidy, but what happens when things don’t go according to plan? This video shows some of the more infamous pace car/safety car botches in recent history. There’s some great clips in here, including the 1971 Indy 500 Challenger crash, the 1986 Winston 500 at Talladega where the Trans Am pace car was stolen, as well as many you aren’t familiar with, including the 2011 6 Hours of Castellet, where the pace car stayed out after the green flag dropped, collecting up a ton of GT-class race cars, including all three GTE-Pro class Porsches. It’s racing, and anything can happen…just ask the dude who was driving the pictured Chevy.
Danger car indeed!
What sort of inbred idiot would steal a safety car and drive it around a completely enclosed circular track with no accessible exits?
Cue “Duelling Banjos”…………
Who thought it would be a good idea to jump in front of a Jeep Cherokee in a formula car, and then jam on your brakes as hard as possible?
Clearly someone who has never driven a Cherokee. Those things have bad brakes on the best days, combined with no ABS on most of them.