Just when I thought we had seen the worst of what the Macau Grand Prix had to offer this year, the proceedings have descended even lower. A red flag ended the second race of the Melco Macau Touring Cup after twelve cars were involved in a pile-up with three other drivers also crashing further down the circuit.
The events in question began with the safety car’s deployment on the fifth lap to retrieve two disabled cars on the 3.8-mile street. The race restarted on the eighth lap of the 12-lap race. Though, a large portion on the field wouldn’t even reach the start/finish line. Cheang Kin Sang in a Mini Cooper S took the R Bend, the circuit’s final circuit, too quickly.
A few drivers followed Cheang’s car into the outside barrier. Other drivers had no other option but plow into the stopped cars on the track. Some were aware enough to brake and carefully maneuver their way around the wreckage. However, another wave of drivers seemingly unaware of the significant incident on the start/finish line approach went around R Bend with full intent to resume racing. Most notably, the Honda Civic of Lin Li would end up on its roof.
The race leaders were not immune from the ensuing crash fest. Célio Alves Dias looped the rear-end of his Mini Cooper S around at the first corner and struck the inside wall. The third-placed car ended up smashing into Dias’s Mini. The fifth-placed car lost control, attempting to avoid the incident, and crashed into the outside barrier.
A lack of awareness caused these relatively small initial incidents to escalate to ridiculous proportions. A bit of caution and self-preservation is all it would have taken to avoid this race devolving to something more familiar in an iRacing ARCA race. Célio Alves Dias won the second race, despite crashing on the restart, as the race’s result was determined from a lap before the red flag.
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