Watch a BMW Flip Through the Air After Blowing Three-Wide Pass at 24 Hours of Lemons
Nobody was hurt, but at least one team’s race was ended prematurely by this questionable attempt at a pass.
"To finish first, you must first finish," said quadruple Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears.
It's a lesson worth heeding for racing drivers at all levels of competition, from professional to amateur, and one especially important in endurance racing. Had a certain BMW driver heard this quote before entering the 24 Hours of Lemons at New Jersey Motorsports Park this past weekend, they might have finished their race instead of going home earlier than expected.
The infamous $500 junker endurance race series, the 24 Hours of Lemons, held two events this past weekend, one of which was the site of multiple idiotic crashes. One of such crashes was caused by the driver at the helm of the number 666 BMW E36 of Seems Legit Racing, who let their impatience get the best of them while chasing the race win.
Onboard video recorded by one of the cars involved tells us what happened: the BMW driver tried to dive between two slower cars that weren't expecting a pass attempt. When the door closed, the BMW didn't back out of the overtake and ended up climbing over the rear wheel of the inside car before rolling.
Even if the BMW weren't totally wrecked in the accident, their race would be over; Lemons's rules dictate that if you roll a car, you're too much of a twit to be allowed back on track.
At least the driver of this BMW can say they only destroyed their own car in the incident, and that they at least had some reason to believe a pass was possible here—the same can't be said for an equally ugly failed pass from the same race. Again, it involved a BMW E36, but this time, there was never even a real opportunity to make a pass. Whoever was driving the orange BMW seen in the video below probably shouldn't be allowed within 300 feet of a race car for the rest of their life.
Then again, such is motor racing.
