Max Lanza talks about his scary crash at American SpeedFest 10, which saw his CAAL Racing Chevrolet Camaro go into a rollover after hitting the tire barriers at Paddock Hill Bend.
On his official post-race press release, CAAL Racing driver Max Lanza talks through on what happened in the second EuroNASCAR PRO race at American SpeedFest 10, which saw his No. 88 Wakala Camaro went into a rollover after he hit the tire barriers at Brands Hatch’s Paddock Hill Bend at high speed.
Before the ill-fated race, the race week had gone relatively smoothly for the Italian driver. Lanza, who celebrated his 43rd birthday just three days before the American SpeedFest 10, finished 13th on the combined Practice timesheets before he put his car 17th on the grid for the first race.
Lanza enjoyed a lengthy battle with fellow Challenger Trophy contender Advait Deodhar that unfortunately went wrong on lap 17. Lanza, unaware that Martin Doubek is slow on his chosen racing line, had to swerve into Deodhar’s path to avoid a nasty rear-end collision and took the Indian driver out of the race.
Lanza went on to finish 17th to grab the final podium position in the Challenger Trophy. Thankfully for Lanza, Deodhar was uninjured and both drivers were able to talk about the incident and make amends before the Sunday race, which coincidentally saw both Lanza and Deodhar start on the same row of the grid.
“I’m very happy about what we did here in the UK, despite the track conditions changing many times and having a lot of work to do,” said Lanza on his Race 1 performance.
“We found the way to catch another Challenger Trophy podium after a very difficult race, with many battles on track on a very tricky and slippery track. It was not easy this time, but we brought home a very good result.”
Sunday came and after a relatively quiet first 25 laps, things went horribly wrong for Lanza. As showcased on the live broadcast feed, Lanza looked to have missed the Paddock Hill Bend completely and hit the tire barriers with such force that his car went onto its roof before it landed back on its wheels.
The crash was the first rollover incident in the series since Mauro Trione’s slow speed flip at Franciacorta in 2019, but thankfully Lanza came out unharmed.
While brake issues were initially suspected to be the cause of the crash, Lanza revealed that it was caused by a combination of slippery track conditions and missing his braking point into Paddock Hill.
“Unfortunately the track was very slippery and I was too deep into Turn 1,” explained Lanza. “The car jumped on the sand and the wall was there.”
“It was one of the toughest crashes of my career. I flipped over, but I’m grateful to NASCAR and EuroNASCAR for providing us with safe cars. The crash was very heavy, my #88 sacrificed itself to protect me in the best way and I escaped completely unhurt!”
“I’m very sorry for Roberto, who had to skip the Sunday race due to this. It’s part of the ‘game’, but we look forward to our next stop at Vallelunga. We will be surrounded by tons of Italian Tifosi in a few weeks!”
Roberto Benedetti’s failure to start his Race 2 meant that he lost important points in both the EuroNASCAR 2 overall standings and the Legend Trophy battle, but he took solace from his Legend Trophy podium on Saturday. Benedetti also revealed that the original No. 88 Camaro chassis will be replaced with a new one due to the severity of the damage caused in the flip.
“Second racing weekend and second podium finish!” said Benedetti after the weekend. “It was very difficult because here it’s very hard to find the right room to overtake and it’s very easy to make a mistake.”
“We fought all weekend long for a place in the overall top-10 and this is the most important thing. Yes, it was a pity for Race 2, but luckily Max is ok and that’s it. We see the good part of that: We will have a completely brand new Camaro in Vallelunga!”
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.