The Ridiculous Crash Of Radoslaw Kordecki

The Slovakiaring. Opened in 2010, this 3.36 mile circuit, the country`s only one, is, to put it simply…wide. Sixty metres wide is the front chute, and there`s a lot of room to run elsewhere. That doesn`t mean it`s an easy circuit, as the corners are angled as such that you`ll still go off into the barrier for taking them too fast, but you can get out of danger when it makes itself known.

…During a combined sports and touring car race in the track`s first year, someone stalled on a chute and a safety truck headed out to gather their BMW. A caution flag period, or, as it’s known in Europe, a safety car period, was warranted, and the field slowed down to get behind the safety car (the European term for the pace car). However, a rather large list of drivers decided to ignore the safety car and maneuver back and forth around the track at higher speed than permitted. The race director noted that most of the drivers ignoring the safety car rules were from Poland. Were they all like this back home, or did he just get a stale batch of drivers? He was not really sure himself. However, stale had become stall, and stall would soon become stopped, when one of the Poles did something even more idiotic.

Radoslaw Kordecki; Screencap, as it was the only way I could get a picture of someone I knew for certain to be him

40-something Radoslaw Kordecki was driving a lovely Ferrari 430 GT3, and found it a good move to pull in line with the safety vehicle and start accelerating to get by some traffic. While I do not know as to whether or not this was legal (you can pass lapped traffic and stalled cars under safety car, but not still-functioning cars on the same lap or at least a lap ahead of you, and I don’t know as to what lap they were on), common sense was lacking in terms of the line he chose.

Kordecki seemingly noticed the solid object right in front of him and only now panicked. He hooked the car, which was likely doing double the speed for the slow down area, hard to the left. A tragic crash had been averted.
…And then this happened, as evident in a set of Youtube videos, at least one of which has over 200000 views…

Credit to Formule.cz

Somehow dodging every single car in his path, Kordecki spun at a strange angle into the armco. The steel gave way, and the Ferrari flew over the barrier, rolling three times and forcing the red flag, meaning the race would have to stop. Oops.

Kordecki suffered some burns in the crash, but he returned home not too long after. As for the Ferrari…well, it was done for.

Slovakiaring is still open, continuing to see mostly national events, with the biggest series coming by in 2017 being the European Truck Racing Championship for tractor trailers (yes, they do race those). As for Radoslaw, he’s still around, but has switched to racing Porsches.