Watch the Carnage of the Costly GT World Cup Pileup In Macau
If you only watch racing for the crashes, then you’re in luck, because this one’s a doozy.
The Macau Grand Prix, held since 1954, is a race held on a Chinese street circuit. It is also the only circuit of its kind to host both two and four-wheeled motorsports. The track is known for two major traits: being as narrow as a Parisian street, and being incredibly fast, due to its long straights. As a result, crashes in Macau are often catastrophic, with collateral damage being a common occurrence. In the 1995 Formula 3 race, for example, a single car collided with the wall, tipping the domino, and eventually resulting in more than half the race's entrants retiring, after a massive, track-blocking crash.
During this FIA GT World Cup's visit to the circuit on Saturday, a tremendous pileup of a similar nature occurred, after a Mercedes-AMG GT3 slid wide into a tire barrier, taking minor damage, but more importantly, coming to a dead halt at the exit of a blind corner. The following Mercedes-AMG GT3 was lucky to only brush the stalled Mercedes, but the Porsche 911 GT3 R behind was less fortunate, colliding with the Mercedes, and blocking the racetrack. The procession behind this accident, unable to see what lay ahead, steamed ahead full into the disaster awaiting them.
Multiple angles of the crash can be seen below.
In the end, only four cars of twenty entrants escaped the melee, and the race was red flagged for over an hour, according to South China Morning Post. Four cars involved in the crash were deemed repairable, and eventually made it back out on track after racing resumed. Fortunately, no injuries were reported, but not everyone was as lucky.
Motorcycle racer Daniel Hegarty lost his life during the Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix, reports The Guardian, after slipping off his bike, losing his helmet, and sustaining fatal injuries upon impacting the wall.
As painful as the GT race's crash will be for the bank accounts of the teams involved, its impact pales in comparison to the tragedy of the lost life of a racer. The sturdy machines we race can always be repaired, but the lives of the men and women who race them are much more fragile—and valuable.
Our sympathies go out to the loved ones of Daniel Hegarty.
