During the overnight hours of this weekend's incident-filled 24 Hours of Nürburgring, Falken Motorsports driver Tim Heinemann attempted to pass an Audi TTS that was itself trying to pass an Opel Manta. Heinemann saw a narrow gap that had seemingly opened for him on the inside of a corner, so he moved to take the track position. He instead caught one of the track's tall kerbs, sending the car flying into a double spin and hitting the inside wall nose first.
Heinemann did actually crash, but it was about as small as this crash could have been. Given the speed cars travel through this section of the track, the time of day, and the fact that two cars were now side-by-side immediately behind the Porsche driver, this was about as well as that kerb jump could have possibly gone. Heinemann's on-board shows that all three cars in the moment were inches from disaster, spared when the No. 44 spun without blocking the entire track and the Audi TTS being lapped at the time was able to get past.
The damage necessitated a slow drive back to the pits for repairs, but the No. 44 Falken entry was able to stay in the race and, crucially, the field was spared another of the pile-ups that make the narrow track such a danger at night. The Falken Porsche lost just two laps over the course of the race despite multiple problems, finishing two laps behind the leaders in tenth overall. Given that 88 cars finished the race, it is an impressive recovery.
