Fatal Nordschleife crash sparks 'wake-up call' response

The motorsport world was rocked last weekend by a tragic accident at the Nürburgring, in which Juha Miettinen sadly lost his life. 

For Kelvin van der Linde, one of the most experienced GT drivers in the game, it was a weekend of difficult emotions. 

Although van der Linde has been competing at the highest level for years, this was the first time he was confronted with death during a race weekend. 

The impact of such a scenario was huge, as he candidly explained in conversation with RacingNews365.

“It's the first time in my career that it actually happened where I've been at a race weekend, where someone has died when I was racing,” he said.

“Normally, in motorsport, we have these occurrences very, very rarely. For me, it was a first-time experience, and it was a strange emotion for many different reasons.

“Obviously, massively tragic for him, for his family and everyone involved.”

While modern motor racing is safer than ever, van der Linde conceded that the fear of such detrimental consequences has faded into the background for many drivers.

“But what I felt amongst a lot of the younger generation drivers, I would say around my age, and maybe younger, for many, it was the first time they experienced something like that.

“It was a bit of a wake-up call, a much-needed one, in the world we live in now, and the safety standards we have in a lot of the GT cars, you phase out this idea of death.

“MotoGP has an element of danger, but many believe that the car racers have become almost immortal.

“Year to year, people have been taking more risk. You feel that people don't have that fear like they used to have maybe 20 years ago.

“Once you have a colleague who dies on the track, you think, 'Okay, well, it could happen to me as well'.”

Article continues below image.

The tragic accident occurred in the first of two races that were held at the Nordschleife last weekend.

While the first race was curtailed early after the crash on Saturday, the second race on Sunday went ahead as planned - a deicision that was deliberatley taken with the accident in mind.

“He [Juha] was a guy who was very connected to the Nurburgring, someone who was very passionate about the Nurburgring,” van der Linde commented.

“He was someone who would have also been a fan of us carrying on racing in his honour. It was the right decision to race on Sunday.”

But it wasn't as simple as shutting off the outside world and focusing on the race, as van der Linde detailed he was reminded of the crash every time he went through that section of track.

“From a driver's perspective, it was very strange, because in the car, every time I passed this corner, [I had] this memory 'one day ago, someone lost their life'. 

“I had goosebumps a little bit every every lap I went through there. I was a bit hesitant actually, in the corner as well, which I think is maybe normal. I think they would probably felt the same way.

“Even at that corner where you you never expect someone to die, it's one of the lower speed corners, your mind kind of wonders 'what happenes if there's oil at one of the more dangerous corners?' 

“Your mind starts wandering in that direction. And when you're turning into some of the high speed corners, like Flugplatz or Schwedenkreuz, where you're turning in at 250 km/h, your mind definitely starts to wonder a bit. 

“So you really have to consciously pull yourself away from those thoughts because it's very, very, counterproductive when you're trying to drive fast and drive on the limit. 

“So it was a battle of the emotions on Sunday. Luckily, it was not a race which was particularly important in terms of the result.

“It's clear to most that the preparation races for the 24 hour race don't carry much relevance. But it was a difficult one, but we got through it.”