Man arrested after driving street car onto track at VW race at Brands Hatch
Ever wondered what would happen if you drove your street car onto a race track during a race? Well, you'll get arrested, at least in England.
A 21-year-old male, idenfied as Jack Cottle by the Daily Mail, drove a Volkswagen Golf onto the Brands Hatch circuit in Longfield, England, in the middle of a VW Fun Cup race over the weekend. It looks like an apparent attempt to make a viral video, as someone in the back seat filmed the excusrsion. But instead, he was arrested on suspicion of false imprisonment and is free on bail until July 24.
The man drove the car through the garages and onto the track near the end of the four-hour race. If you've been to a NASCAR race, you've likely seen that it would be possible to get your car on the track if it wasn't for a large security presence. There was clearly not a large security presence at this race.
As he's driving onto the track, the woman to his left, reportedly his girlfriend, sounds terrified as he's pulling the stunt.
According to Kent Online, a driver in the race is threatening legal action. After the driver of the Golf got onto the track the race was red-flagged and the competing cars were ordered off the track. Brands Hatch used to host Formula 1 races. The last F1 race there was in 1986 and CART ran a race there in 2003.
"This idiot caused us and other teams to accept our positions prematurely so cost us and others championship points," Rod Barrett, who was in third when the race was stopped, said.
"Fun Cup competitors pay a lot of money for our track time and in race fees. I am therefore looking at the legal possibilities of starting a combined law suit/class action against this moron to re-claim our race fees and costs as he ruined our race."
A spokesperson for the British Racing and Sports Car Club confirmed a car had gotten on the track and the club would have no further comment until an investigation was complete.
Kent Online also quoted an observer of the prank and said it wasn't a fake. it's easy to think that given it's a VW Golf on track in a VW race and the driver's quote of "This is the new Volkswagen" at the beginning of his video.
"Because I had arrived nice and early the assembly and parc ferme were almost deserted." Steven O'Connor said of the area Cottle drove through.
"Then the marshals started forming up the few cars that started arriving in the assembly area and he arrived at that time, turned into parc ferme and straight through the weighbridge garage that was empty.
"If it hadn't been a four-hour race then the whole area would have been filled with assembling cars and cars from the previous race being checked and he physically couldn't have got through."
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
