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Le Mans / ALMS
ALMS: DeltaWing Crashes In Testing At Road Atlanta
UPDATED: Video on-board footage of rollover accident Wednesday at Road Atlanta; car expected to be repaired for Thursday's start of official practice...
Watch Gunnar Jeannette's wild ride in the Nissan DeltaWing, and you be the judge of what exactly happened. (Image: Highcroft)
The North American race debut of the Nissan DeltaWing got off to a challenging start, as the experimental car suffered a rollover accident in testing Wednesday at Road Atlanta.
Gunnar Jeannette was at the wheel of the unclassified entry when he and the No. 34 Green Hornet Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Car of Peter LeSaffre made contact, sending the Deltawing on its side and hard into the wall.
Luckily, Jeannette was uninjured in the accident, which happened in the first formal on-track test for Saturday's 15th annual Petit Le Mans.
“Not the best of practice sessions, unfortunately,” Jeannette said. “Everything was going well... I followed a GTC car through [turns] 10a and 10b, and in following the car I fully expected that he saw me. I had a run on him exiting 10b 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."
LeSaffre, meanwhile, had a different view of the incident.
“I had no place to go,” he said. “I was tracking out on the curb. My steering wheel was straight, and he whacked me. There is quite a bit of traffic and a lot of turns where you should not pass even if you’re in a P1 car. It comes down to being patient. The race, especially in our class with eight cars, is going to be a tough one.”
Despite what appeared to be significant damage, the Highcroft Racing crew expects to have the car back out for the start of official practice tomorrow.
"Luckily, the guys built a very strong car," Jeannette added. "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 are already going to work and almost have all the damaged parts off it already.”
Jeannette and co-driver Lucas Ordonez had enjoyed an encouraging session up until the accident, having posted the sixth quickest time overall, and only less than four-tenths slower than the class-leading P2 entry.
John Dagys is SPEED.com’s Sportscar Racing Reporter, focusing on all major domestic and international championships. You can follow him on Twitter @johndagys or email him at
Gunnar Jeannette was at the wheel of the unclassified entry when he and the No. 34 Green Hornet Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Car of Peter LeSaffre made contact, sending the Deltawing on its side and hard into the wall.
Luckily, Jeannette was uninjured in the accident, which happened in the first formal on-track test for Saturday's 15th annual Petit Le Mans.
“Not the best of practice sessions, unfortunately,” Jeannette said. “Everything was going well... I followed a GTC car through [turns] 10a and 10b, and in following the car I fully expected that he saw me. I had a run on him exiting 10b 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."
LeSaffre, meanwhile, had a different view of the incident.
“I had no place to go,” he said. “I was tracking out on the curb. My steering wheel was straight, and he whacked me. There is quite a bit of traffic and a lot of turns where you should not pass even if you’re in a P1 car. It comes down to being patient. The race, especially in our class with eight cars, is going to be a tough one.”
Despite what appeared to be significant damage, the Highcroft Racing crew expects to have the car back out for the start of official practice tomorrow.
"Luckily, the guys built a very strong car," Jeannette added. "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 are already going to work and almost have all the damaged parts off it already.”
Jeannette and co-driver Lucas Ordonez had enjoyed an encouraging session up until the accident, having posted the sixth quickest time overall, and only less than four-tenths slower than the class-leading P2 entry.
John Dagys is SPEED.com’s Sportscar Racing Reporter, focusing on all major domestic and international championships. You can follow him on Twitter @johndagys or email him at
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