McNish's lucky escape

SCOTTISH racing driver Allan McNish was lucky to escape unharmed from a serious accident which marred this weekend’s Le Mans 24 Hours race in France.  The Le Mans event is the pinnacle of the sportscar calendar, but it nearly ended in tragedy which would have bought echoes of the 1955 disaster, when spectators were killed by a Mercedes car crashing into the crowd.

     McNish, a former Toyota Formula One driver in 2002 and twice a winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours, was driving one of the favourite Audi cars, alongside Rinaldo Capello and Danish legend Tom Kristensten.  Just over an hour into the event and McNish was challenging for third place, when he clipped a backmarker car.  Allan, 41, was turned around by the Ferrari GT entry of Pierre Thiriet and Francois Jakubowski, driven by Frenchman Anthony Beltoise.  It was a minimal connection, but the sequence of events afterwards was frightening.  Fans favourite McNish had no control as his prototype careered across the gravel trap, appearing not to lose any speed whatsoever.  At approximately 120mph, he smashed into the tyre barriers, shredding wheels, debris and other pieces of carbon fibre all over the place.  Stewards and photographers, hoping to have a quiet day or take the stunning landscape shot, were suddenly running for their lives.  Although his car was a complete write-off, McNish was helped out of the cockpit relatively unharmed, with just a bruised shin and a shaking. 

     Inside the pits and the Audi mechanics looked like they’d seen a ghost, some close to tears as they feared the worst.  He was given the all-clear by the Audi team doctor and trackside staff at the La Sarthe circuit.  McNish admitted he was fortunate to walkaway afterwards;

“I have to say a big thank you to the designers of Audi.  They’ve produced a car that can have an impact that is enormous and the driver pops the door and gets out perfectly well.  Considering the impact, the speed and everything else, I think we all got away quite fortunate.”

     Audi had an emotional weekend, as Mike Rockenfeller suffered a 200mph crash on the Mulsanne Straight on Saturday evening.  He was kept in hospital overnight as a precaution, but is thought to be like McNish, relatively unharmed.  It ended on a happy note for the German manufacturer, as their other car, driven by Marcel Fassler, Benoit Treluyer and Andre Lotterer beat the leading Peugeot of Pedro Lamy, Sebastian Bourdais and Simon Pagenaud by just 15 seconds.  Britain’s best finisher was Anthony Davidson.  Davidson, also in a Peugeot finished fourth with fellow former F1 racers Marc Gene and Alexander Wurz. 

     However, the 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours will only be remembered for Allan McNish’s lucky escape.