Porsche 911 Cup Flies Into Stands in Horrifying Crash
Things like this aren’t supposed to happen, but at least there weren’t any spectators nearby when this Porsche 911 Cup breached the fence.
Fresh off celebrating a milestone of reaching 5,000 vehicles produced in its lifespan, the Porsche 911 Cup is one of the most common purpose-built factory racers out there, a model that has enjoyed enduring success for a number of years now. The Porsche 911 Cup is also a common sight at race tracks across the globe, which is precisely where this horrifying accident occurred – the Algarve International Circuit in Portimão, Portugal, during a practice session for the Porsche Sprint Challenge Ibérica, a supporting category for the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Luckily, since this was a practice session, there weren’t many people in the stands at the time – just the person that caught this crash on camera, along with a few others. In this video supplied by the nearby fan, we can see the Porsche 911 Cup racer fly across the gravel trap, over the tire wall, through the fence, and directly into the stands, which is obviously something that isn’t supposed to happen at any track.
In Portimao a car has flipped and hit the top of the fence and landed in the grandstands, luckily no one was injured 😳
📷 petete3mil pic.twitter.com/HmiNZCndOD
— WTF1 (@wtf1official) April 14, 2023
As it turns out, the driver of this particular 911 Cup – Alex Areia – was unharmed, as was everyone else in the vicinity of this wild-looking crash. He later explained on social media that his brakes gave out, which is what caused the whole thing to happen. “I ran out of brakes at the end of the straight, I practically became a passenger,” Areia said. “Luckily no one was in that area of the grandstand and I managed to get out of the accident unharmed, thanks to the safety level of that car.”
@wls350z #fiawec_official #portimao ♬ original sound – WLS
This is notable because had the stands been filled with fans, it’s pretty much inevitable that multiple people could have been seriously injured or killed as a result. This particular track is an FIA Grade 1 circuit, meaning that it has achieved the highest possible safety standard, though it’s now likely that those standards will change in the near future, and sure enough, this incident is being reviewed by the FIA as we speak. With any luck, officials will figure out went wrong and make corrections, so that it will never happen again.
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