Spa Francorchamps officials had been showing yellow flags for sixteen seconds by the time Adrian D’Silva’s Porsche ran headlong into the stopped Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 296 on the start-finish straight. D’Silva was the sixteenth car in line attempting to pass the sidelined Bronze-class Ferrari as it coasted extremely slowly toward the grass. Yellow flags fly in order to warn drivers that something is on the race track ahead, and that they should slow down, but the Porsche (and everyone else) just kept going at over 120 miles per hour without abatement.
Thankfully nobody was hurt in this massive crash, but both racing teams will have to buy new race cars after this one.
I’m not sure what was going on with D’Silva that he couldn’t slow the car down in time, but 16 seconds in a race car is an eternity. With yellow flags flying the team should have been in his ear to get the car down to a safe speed, and relay information, like the fact that there’s a stopped race car on the straight right before the famous Eau Rouge corner. D’Silva isn’t alone here, as the other fifteen cars that absolutely ripped past the stopped Ferrari could just as easily have made a mistake and ended their day.
This was an extremely eventful race with massive crashes, dead Lamborghinis in pit lane, and, occasionally, some really great racing. If you’ve never watched the Spa 24 before, you owe it to yourself to do so. Congratulations to Aston Martin for winning the race for the first time since 1948. That Vantage GT3 looks pretty damn cool all dirty after a 24 hour event.