Magnussen: “It Was a Pretty Hard Hit and We’ve Done a lot of Damage”

Photo: John Dagys

Jan Magnussen has escaped serious injury following a heavy accident in Saturday morning’s GTLM/GTD practice at Virginia International Raceway.

The Corvette Racing driver and TUDOR United SportsCar Championship GTLM points leader spun off track in Turn 1 and slammed into the No. 911 Porsche North America entry of Richard Lietz, who had also gone off-course from fluid laid down from another car.

While having initially been dazed from the massive impact, the Dane was released from the trackside medical center, but with further evaluation needed before being cleared to compete in tomorrow’s Oak Tree Grand Prix.

Magnussen and co-driver Antonio Garcia enter this weekend’s race with a 8-point lead over the SRT Motorsports pairing of Jonathan Bomarito and Kuno Wittmer.

“Somebody had dumped a heap of fluid on the track and the first thing I knew about it was when I hit the brakes and had no grip,” Magnussen said.

“It was a pretty hard hit and we’ve done a lot of damage but the guys are working frantically to get us back on track. The Corvette Racing guys are the best in the business so if anybody can get us back out there, they can.”

The Pratt & Miller squad is now in a scramble to get the No. 3 car on track for qualifying, which gets underway at 12:50 p.m. ET.

Co-driver Garcia will handle qualifying duties should the car return to competition.

Lietz, meanwhile, was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation, with an official update having yet to be released from either Porsche or IMSA. The Austrian, however, was reported to be awake and alert.

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