Some of the best and worst safety car fails

After former Holden chief Mark Reuss smashed a Corvette ZR1 pace car at the Detroit IndyCar GP prior to the race last weekend, we got thinking about all the other crazy things that have happened to course cars over the years.

Then we picked a few to remind you of. For example, do you remember the time Franz Engstler crashed into a safety car at the 2009 WTCC Race of France at Pau?

In race 2, Engstler was leading the race when, only a couple of laps in, he blindsided the safety car as it left pit lane, losing Engstler his front tyre.

To be fair, it was a blind corner, but the yellow flags were out before the collision. Knowing what Engstler could actually see might make it easier to know whether it could have been avoided.

Another infamous incident is the time Nick Heidfeld went nose-first into the door of a medical car at the 2002 Brazilian GP.

The medical car – a Mercedes-AMG C63 Estate – had stopped for Enrique Bernoldi, who had crashed his Arrows F1 car into the wall.

While the medical car’s door was open (on the opposite side to the track), Heidfeld took the preceding corner too hot and according to him, there was no way he could save it.

Somehow, the door managed to stay on the car, and no one was badly injured.

There’s also the time Taki Inoue copped a medical car’s bonnet to the torso, after it hit him while he was walking by.

Inoue, himself infamous for having never scored a point in F1 over 18 entries, crashed his Arrows and was out of the 1995 Hungary GP.

This was only a few races after a safety car had hit his own racer during practice at Monaco, so what else could possibly go wrong?

While Inoue was walking in front of the medical car which had arrived at the scene, it moved a little further than he seemed to anticipate and hit his leg, throwing him onto the bonnet.

If we want to take things back to the IndyCar realm, and more specifically Pace cars, we have to go further back.

In 1971, for example, a Dodge Challenger pace car lost control at the end of pit lane during the Indy 500 at.

The Challenger, driven by a local car dealer with astronaut John Glenn along for the ride, ended up in a photographers’ stand, though thankfully no one was killed, though up to 30 were injured, two seriously.

Or, in what could be the worst/best thing to happen to a pace car in history, there’s the NASCAR Talladega incident of 1986.

In a scene that looked like something you’d see in a bizarre Blues Brothers remake, the pace car started up around the track before the race, but the officials weren’t driving it.

The commentators discover, as the below video shows, that a ‘spectator’ has found his way into the pace car, a Pontiac Trans-Am, and started lapping the speedway.

Very quickly, a roadblock is formed by officials, and police motorcycles give chase. Though he only manages a short joyride, the crowd is absolutely enamoured with his performance.

The commentators say he’s cheering for the police who are taking him out of the car, but we know that’s not why they’re cheering.

To balance out all this fail, we have something a little more on the 'win' side. Do you remember when four-time Le Mans winner and now safety car driver Yannick Dalmas drifted the flashing-light-equipped Audi R8 through the rain at Le Mans in 2016?

It drew admiration from Mark Webber, who mimicked a bit of opposite lock while talking to someone about what had just made him smile.