Nissan DeltaWing assaulted in Road Atlanta testing

BRASELTON, GA, Wednesday, 17 October 2012: The Nissan DeltaWing's assault on the 15th annual Petit Le Mans event suffered a set-back in testing today when Gunnar Jeannette was struck by a GTC Porsche and forced into a vilolent roll.

Damage on the #0 Nissan DeltaWing Project 56 Nissan after a heavy crash

Photo by: Eric Gilbert

The massive impact was measured at 7Gs on the team's telementary system. Video footage from the Nissan-powered Conquest Racing P2 car of Martin Plowman showed the Porsche bouncing off the exit kerb at turn 10b and smashing into the Nissan DeltaWing as Jeannette was going by. (click on link above to view video)

The car scraped down the road on its roll hoops before suffering a heavy impact with the wall and landing back on its wheels.

Jeannette was transferred to the track medical center but was soon released with no injuries suffered.

The crew immediately began work on repairing the damage with a target on having the car return to the track tomorrow.

Prior to the impact, the Nissan DeltaWing had set a fastest time of 1 minute, 13.686 seconds for the 2.54 Road Atlanta circuit.

GUNNAR JEANNETTE “Not the best of practice sessions, unfortunately.

“Everything was going well... I followed a GTC car through [turns] 10a and 10b and I had a run on him exiting the corner before the bridge and pulled almost completely past.

"He cut over to take the apex and made heavy contact with the left-rear of our car that sent me for a bit of a ride.

"Luckily, the guys built a very strong car.

"While the damage looks to be bad in photographs, the car took the impact quite well. We have all the spare parts to fix it and we have an excellent crew that got to work straight away and had the car stripped down remarkably quickly.”

LUCAS ORDOÑEZ “Unfortunately a GT crossed over on Gunnar near the bridge and it is a very risky and dangerous place for this to happen.

"Gunnar had a big roll and finished in the grass. Fortunately he is OK and that is the most important thing.

"The car has big damage but the team is working really hard and the guys are really professional so I am sure the car will be OK for the next session.

"Before the crash I had a run and bedded in new stuff like brakes and the new engine. The car was quite strong and I was feeling quite good in the car.

"The car was really good and efficient in high speed corners. We were sixth fastest and I felt really confident in the traffic. We are certainly going forward and learning a lot and we just have our fingers crossed for tomorrow.”

DARREN COX - NISSAN “The most important thing is that Gunnar is OK after a very nasty accident.

"The guys are working very hard and will do everything they can to get back on track tomorrow.

"What I am most pleased about is that while the car obviously passed all the virtual and actual FIA crash tests prior to running at Le Mans, we've unfortuantely tested the car in real world incidents twice now and in both cases the car has done it job in protecting the driver.

"We'd rather not do it again but we've certainly shown the concept works and it is very safe."

DON PANOZ - DELTAWING RACING CARS “This was certainly not the start to the week we were looking for, but the positive aspects are that the car has shown very impressive speed and that Gunnar was able to walk away from the incident.

"There is quite a bit of damage but we are also fortuante for the team to be able to call on the guys from Elan Motorsport Technologies for additional backup to tend to any issues - particularly related to composites.

"The car certainly did its job in protecting the driver - hopefully that's the last time we need to worry about testing that aspect of the car."

Source: Nissan DeltaWing/Highcroft Racing