[kellyhound]

Driver Bruce Jouanny walked away unscathed after an "incident" at a corner at the Pike Peak International Hill Climb.

The PPIHC is one of the oldest racing events in the United States, and it involves a challenge where the drivers compete against the clock to navigate the Pikes Peak summit, which, in total, comes to be a 12.4-mile drive.

While it doesn’t sound like a lot, the 9,390 feet elevation that the drivers have to battle at the same time, with no practice sessions, makes it one of the most challenging racing events.

Bruce Jouanny has run the event previously, and his weekend had started quite strongly, having qualified 4th in the open class. However, his run was hampered by what appeared to be a drastic incident.

However, to the relief of many, he walked out of the crash unhurt. This proved to be a massive test for the current safety of motorsports, which seems to be serving its purpose well.

During his run in the Ligier JS2 R, climbing a part of the hill, Jouanny came across a sharp hairpin corner. With too much speed and not enough time to brake, he ended up locking his wheels, which sent him straight off course, making it look like he jumped off a cliff. Luckily for him, it wasn’t exactly a cliff, but again, he did narrowly miss a bunch of trees and boulders as his car broke down.

He traveled around 100 feet off the course, but because his car did not flip around and was still on its four wheels, he was mostly safe. If his car had hit the ground at a different angle, it could have flipped over, and the entire crash could have been a lot worse for him.

[Mecrupulent]

Impressive

I don't see how he could have made that turn at that speed, even if he hadn't had a wheel blockage.
But hey, he was french and in a french car, so... I guess he was almost invincible 😁

Fun French Facts :
- Bruce Jouanny was one of the presentators of the first team of Top Gear France, a team which everyone mocked for being absolutely not car- and driving-savvy, except for him. He was the only one with some credibility for an automobile TV show. His comrades lasted two seasons before being replaced, I think Jouanny stayed for one or two more seasons before leaving too.
- Ligier makes mostly "license-less" cars, you know, these things with a lawnmower engine that make a lot of noise and are barely road-worthy ? Here, most have features like racing stripes and double exhaust pipe

[William May]

JUST SO EVERYONE KNOWS!!!

In 1909, a single-cylinder Brush Runabout climbed Pike's Peak, and DIDN'T go off the road!

Probably why they are known as "The Mighty Brush!"

[Mecrupulent]

Originally Posted by William May ↗

Probably why they are known as "The Mighty Brush!"

Oh yeah, I see... They even made a film about that...

Brush Almighty !

[Mr.NoCredit]

Nice launch!!

[kbt3168]

He can’t even say he was texting - he just failed to turn

[DemonicDave]

If he had to go off an edge at least this was probably the safest area to lose it. If it was a more common 2k foot drop near the peak and he'd been recovered with a mop and bucket

[AllegedlyHere]

The wings didn’t deploy. Going to have a word with the engineers.