Unfortunately for John Shoffner, his last VLN race at the Nurburgring ended before he could collect points. On the bright side, he managed to walk away from this horrific crash without as much as a scratch—a testament to the remarkable sturdiness of the modern GT3 Cup.
Running with J2 Racing for another weekend of the Carrera Cup, his race had been proceeding smoothly until overtaking a slower car on the way to the unforgiving section of track called Flugplatz (which literally translates to “The Flying Place”), where a GT3-spec Nissan went airborne and killed a spectator in 2015. The right-hand bend is very quick, preceded by a steep climb, and without much runoff area. Not surprisingly, it’s the site of many bad accidents.
After the Nissan crash, the hill preempting the corner was flattened considerably to try and keep cars from becoming low-flying aircraft. Instead of going airborne, Shoffner seems to have oversteered slightly into the the grass, where his front wheel caught and forced the car into a roll—only to accelerate its rolling once striking the tire wall.
Without the tire barrier, Shoffer’s car might’ve ended up in the trees.
The tire wall did its job well; dissipating energy and keeping the car within the confines of the track. All went well, and Shoffner walked away without injury. In fact, he commented on the video, noting: “I’m the driver. Nice catch on the vid. Thanks for being there. Any chance I can get some stills from that? BTW – I’m fine, not a scratch, but my face filled with blood from the spins, they were horrific. Everybody- buy a Porsche!!”
I’m not sure there’s ever been a better advertisement for the marque than that. Buy a Porsche, indeed.