The BMW newcomer team Schubert experienced a real drama on the way to the official DTM test at the Hockenheimring: The team transporter, which had the two new BMW M4 GT3s driven by Sheldon van der Linde and Philipp Eng on board, had an accident on the journey to Difficult on Monday early afternoon on the Autobahn. There was even a fire.
“We had a serious accident with our truck and are very lucky to be here with our racing cars at all,” confirms team manager Marcel Schmidt. “The trailer is fine, but the tractor is completely destroyed.” What happened?
The team transporter, which had set off from the team’s headquarters in Oschersleben, skidded on the A7 between Hersfeld-West and Kirchheim due to a burst tyre. The driver lost control of the vehicle and crashed into the guardrail on the right.
The truck’s fuel tank ruptured on impact, leaking petrol and igniting. In the end, the badly damaged tractor came to a standstill with the right front wheel on the crash barrier. Even the fire brigade had to move out.
Team has to work night shift
“The most important thing is that the mechanics, the truck driver and everyone else is okay,” says Schmidt, relieved that there were no injuries. “We are here, everything is fine.”
Nevertheless, the team had to do a great job in order to be able to take part in the test, which started at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, as planned.
In order to get the stranded semi-trailer with the two GT3 cars to the race track in time, a functional tractor unit, which was actually intended for the ADAC GT Masters, was ordered to the scene of the accident from the team’s headquarters in Oschersleben, around 260 kilometers away.
The action cost the team a lot of time, which is why they had to work a night shift. “We arrived around 12:00 a.m. and had the box set up at 4 a.m.,” says Schmidt. The crew had to forego sleep to be ready for the test. “We were back on the mat at 7:30 a.m.”