The very last feet of the very last lap, plus a massive half-a-minute gap between the leader of the race and the runner-up. Nothing can go wrong, right? Well, unless the car runs out of fuel.
Worst-case scenarios do happen. And Japanese driver Max Orido learned the hard way. His BMW M4 GT4 ran out of fuel on the start/finish straight, right before crossing the finish line at the Okayama racetrack. And the driver had to push it over the line and watch the checkered flag being waved at him from outside the car.
The sight to behold took place in the Asian GT4 racing series at the Okayama International Circuit this past weekend. The footage shows the BMW slowing down. A Toyota GR Supra GT4, piloted by Hairdarma Manoppo and Seita Nonaka, having recovered the 33-second gap, comes full steam ahead and flashes past him to win the race.
The fact that Max Orido and his co-driver, Masaki Kano, had led the race every single lap from the start until that moment brings even more drama into the story.
At first, spectators at the Okayama circuit did not understand what was going on and thought, according to Daily Sports Car, that the driver chose to slow down to run out the clock, so as not to require an additional lap to be run. Others thought that he was just playing a joke on his team.
But there was no strategy, and there was no joke, just drama all the way. And the reason was absolutely absurd and embarrassing for a racing team: running out of fuel. It all became clear when they saw the driver come out of the car and start pushing it while being overtaken by a total of five cars. Orido eventually finished sixth.
A victory would have made his team win the 2023 Fanatic Japan Cup championship title that very day. Luckily for them, Sunday’s race finished better and with reserve fuel in the gas tank, and they managed to get their well-deserved championship with a one-day delay.
Max Orido is not the first driver to push his car over the finish line. Jack Brabham finished fourth after he did the same in 1959 in the US Grand Prix at Sebring, pushing his racing car along the pit straight and across the line. It was the race that secured him his championship title, beating Sir Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks.
Also in the US, but this time in the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix, Nigel Mansell pushed his Lotus to the finish line and ended the race in the sixth position, following a gearbox failure. After the stint, he collapsed from exhaustion. And it was all for a single point!
Google News