Porsche GT1 996 somersault – Road Atlanta 1998

An unforgettable scene unfolds as a 996 Porsche GT1 does a backward flip whilst racing at Road Atlanta Petit Le Mans. There’s a lesson in there about down force, somewhere.

The 1998 Petit Le Mans stands forever as a race which retired French Formula One driver Yannick Dalmas will never forget. Having won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1992, 1993 and 1995, Dalmas was no stranger to sports car racing however we expect that this bizarre incident caught even he by surprise.

Who doesn’t recall watching in awe as the beautiful Porsche 911 GT1 took off and rotated backwards through the sky? It unfolded in a fashion so delicate and smooth that it could be called graceful were it not clearly about to lead to the violent destruction of the car.

MORE: Porsche 911 GT1 – Mark Webber and the monster (video)

Luckily Dalmas survived, and went on to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans for a fourth time in 1999, driving for BMW with Joachim Winkelhock and Pierluigi Martini. We wonder how often he thinks about the day he looked into the Georgia sky?

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