TUDOR Championship: Ricard Lietz suffers broken arm in crash at VIR
Richard Lietz has suffered a broken arm following a massive accident in practice for tomorrow’s Oak Tree Grand Prix.
The Porsche factory driver spun off on oil laid down in Turn 1 in the closing stages of the 90-minute session before being hit by the No. 3 Corvette C7.R of Jan Magnussen, who also lost control of his GTLM car in the slippery conditions.
Lietz was taken to an area hospital where he was diagnosed with a fracture to his right arm. He is scheduled to fly back to his native Austria where he will undergo surgery.
The car, which appears to have sustained chassis damage to the left side, has remained at the track but is unclear whether it will be able to race.
Porsche has yet to release an official statement on the plan for tomorrow’s race. Lietz was due to co-drive with Nick Tandy, while the CORE autosport-run operation has its No. 912 Porsche for Patrick Long and Michael Christensen.
Meanwhile, Jan Magnussen escaped serious injury following the accident in Saturday morning’s GTLM/GTD practice at Virginia International Raceway.
While having initially been dazed from the massive impact, the Dane was released from the trackside medical center, but with further evaluation needed before being cleared to compete in tomorrow’s Oak Tree Grand Prix.
Magnussen and co-driver Antonio Garcia enter this weekend’s race with a 8-point lead over the SRT Motorsports pairing of Jonathan Bomarito and Kuno Wittmer.
“Somebody had dumped a heap of fluid on the track and the first thing I knew about it was when I hit the brakes and had no grip,” Magnussen said.
“It was a pretty hard hit and we’ve done a lot of damage but the guys are working frantically to get us back on track. The Corvette Racing guys are the best in the business so if anybody can get us back out there, they can.”
More to follow ...
