That’s Cal weathers!

I think lights out and away your go is way more famous then this lmao nobody watches this dogshit circle race

this is litterally a junkrat refrence

its lights out and away we go

What a great video! 2001 Pepsi 400 and this race are Michael's best moments tbh.

that Ferrari was a criminal lol

That was a good race

Jen Jo would have finished 3rd if she drove in front of Clay Rogers instead of staying in the inside lane

Like father and son

God I love Mikey!!!

i ddint know he had kid

Yeah Man That Was MASSIVE.

Somebody was on their cell phone again. It should be a career banning infraction when someone comes up behind you in a car that probably has 100 MPH on you standing still and your first thought is"Ya know? Think I'm going to cut this guy off and totally try to kill him"

Doesn't matter what race it is.. I shed i tear evertyime i hear Darrel shouting "Mikey, you got it!"

Now that's a command right there!

Absolutely terrifying. I watched this live and I don't think I've ever been more convinced that I just watch a fatal accident. The LMP1 safety cells are unbelievable. Also the old rule that the more spectacular and more bits flying off the car the better seems to often hold true

ferrari is alway guilty of causing the worst crases

omg

The rulebook says that you have to give way to cars of quicker classes. By that rule, Kaufman should have sticked to the outside line instead of cutting across the track again. That spot is not a difficult spot to lap a car, because it is just a little kink which is driven with full throttle by any class car. Considering that, Kaufman would not have lost any time if he had sticked to the outside line.

I remember hearing that the driver in question was a competent one, but had little experience of full-shift night driving. The organisers said during the race that they would clamp down harder on potential entries that couldn't prove reasonable night driving expertise in future. There's no really good view of the crash because the cameras had recently been locked-off for the night. This one shows the front angle, a CCTV camera showed the reverse, Mike's onboard shows the violence of it.

In response to the comment below ; in the day the GT traffic was taking the outside line (it is only a kink after all) should've been easy for a prototype! Gt traffic after all was told to hold their line and let faster cars find a way past :)

Surely he can take the outside line before the corner if the Ferrari hasn't move aside but require big balls to do that which is....well...

its better to say le mans ;)

@Crisgo3d Yea I can't wait to see them at Sebring either. I'm going for my second time this year haha! I heard about the new Toyota's but I don't know much about them. Can't wait to see them.

@Crisgo3d No Allan's crash was way worse. First off they weren't even an hour into the race and he was racing to competitively. And second if you go and re watch his crash he was just inches from possibly killing several camera men. Both were astonishing wrecks and it sucked that the new R18's had such a shitty first year at Le Mans. Peugeot isn't racing anymore because they ran out of money so hopefully Audi will have a better year this year.

@danielgtr123 leider ja :/ Ich weis noch früher mal... Als es noch die GT1&2 gab... Als Freisinger mit dem GT3 RS, 2003 den Gesamtsieg eingefahren hatte. Tolle Zeit *__* Aber leider vorbei... Ist das gleiche wie am Nürburgring... Die gute alte SP7&8 Zeiten sind nunmal vorrüber :(

24h Spa ist nicht mehr das was es mal war.... überall nur noch GT3 reglemant, an die Zeiten von früher kommen die nicht mehr ran.

@100milnic Never mind it could have killed him. Should have been banned for driving like that. Rockenfeller was flashing his lights at him like crazy.its not like Kaufman could have not seen him

Did McNish have a problem with his car? If not that was a totally boneheaded move for him to pull, dive bombing the corner like that.

@ProjectVIN Yeah look up Jo Bonnier (rare). EXACT same situation but renowned driver Vic Elford called it a mistake on Jo's part, not the Ferrari driver.

I don't know how to feel regarding Kaufman. That second kink there on that straight has been a point of contention ever since much faster prototypes began competing alongside GT cars. A similar incident killed Jo Bonnier in (I think) '72. Fact is, after several hours just driving a GT car through that kink at near top speed is probably a handful in itself, much moreso with a prototype doing a good 50 mph faster than you. It's kind of like being on foot in the middle of a freeway.

@simontemplar1969 this was 2011

bad 24h of le Mans this year but they win with one car :)

Great coverage!

Drivers were complaining in the race that the Audi's lights were too bright (up to a mile away they were visible on the mulsanne) so they couldn't tell how close they were because they just see a glare of light, that could've been a cause of this crash, at the start of this video the Audi lights are so bright you can't see the Ferrari infront of it.

@Ramathustra also as well. he only just got his licence 2 week before le mans started which was another enquiry.

@simontemplar1969 i dont think r18 was released in 2005 :P xD

@Ramathustra Which is unjust, because he (Kaufman) simply held his racing line as any faster driver (Rocky) should expect. He tried to pass a slower car at a very difficult spot and failed. Just think what the response would have been if Kaufman swerved to the outside to make way, at the time when Rocky tried to go round the outside. It is difficult with these lights to judge where the faster car behind you is. Stick to your line and let the faster driver decide where and how!

Ja pierdole, od kiedy sie z prawej strony bez kierunków wyprzedza...

@simontemplar1969 This year... 2011 ;)

when? year please!!

Nope, hatte nur den Anfang aufgenommen, und hab dann am TV weitergeguckt... Sry!

If you look at mcnish's crash Rockenfeller was right behind him and probably thought "did I dodge a bullet or what"

Pssst, das ist Michael :P

@shpuker Okay, lol - Yeah this one here is definitely the Ferrari's fault. No way to discuss about that :-D

@Crossdrop Good post, the Ferrari driver only saw Timo in his mirrors and had no idea there was another Audi right behind Timo. McNish saw Timo slowing up and because it's a race he went to pass Timo. McNish said he had no idea there was a Ferrari right in front of Timo. So McNish was really only passing his teammate and was already committed by the time the Ferrari turned in on him. He had no idea the Ferrari was there and the Ferrari had no idea there were two Audis behind him.

@shpuker Of course he does, everyone does so in a corner, coming from the outside, driving through the inside. GT are also allowed to do that ;-) It was jsut impossible to see McNish behind the No1 Audi. So he thought he had a clear line, only realising that there is a second audi when they already crashed. You cann see it from the No1's onboard - it was all so fast there was no time to react. I think McNish's maneuver was just too risky for a 24h race. You won't win 24h a race like that....

@shpuker Naa, in McNish's case, the Ferrari held his line perfectly - his line through the inside of that corner. He just wasn't able to see McNish since the other audi was in his mirrors nad would not pass. So that - for him - was a reason to drive through the inside, which was his line ;-)

@Fikki96 : In a nutshell, yes. Its a pretty simple concept- the impact causes x amount of damage, so the more damaged the car is, the less damaged the driver will be. If you watch old racing videos from the 20's and 30's- they used to build race cars like tanks. They would hit something and the car would be fine, but the driver would be completely busted up.

the more bits there are flying off, the less energy there is around the driver, the less hurt he is going to be is absolutely right