Bergmeister’s Wild Ride at Le Mans Test Day

Photo: Maximilien Cadiou

Joerg Bergmeister went for a wild ride in Sunday’s Le Mans Test Day, which saw his No. 91 Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 911 RSR launch into the air and fly through the gravel trap at the Ford Chicane.

“Unfortunately I missed the braking point in the Ford curve and actually wanted to drive straight ahead through the gravel trap to avoid hitting the curbs at the edge,” Bergmeister explained. “But the car took off, flew far and landed hard.”

The Porsche factory driver was uninjured, but the bizarre incident brought an early end to the the day for he and co-drivers Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet due to chassis damage to the GTE-Pro contender.

“It didn’t make sense to do the repairs here,” said Head of Porsche Motorsport Hartmut Kristen. “We’ll take a good look at it when we get home, after all, we want to drive this car in a fortnight at the 24 hour race.”

Porsche’s sister No. 92 entry of Fred Makowiecki, Marco Holzer and Richard Lietz wound up quickest of the test, thanks to a 3:57.260 lap time set by the Frenchman.

The German manufacturer heads into Le Mans as the defending class winners, having scored a 1-2 finish in the race last year.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John