During an extraordinary meeting, the Board of the DMSB (Deutscher Motor Sport Bund) has adopted comprehensive safety provisions for the Nürburgring Nordschleife. “Those include a reduction of performance for some vehicle classes as well as a kind of ‘speed limit’ in specific sections”, explained DMSB President Hans-Joachim Stuck. “For the time being, several spectator areas are moreover not available in their entirety.” This shall help to ensure safe racing conditions until the investigations of the public prosecutor’s office after the fatal accident on the last weekend in March are concluded and further DMSB internal investigations are completed.
Before the decision of the DMSB Board, a group of experts comprising representatives of the circuit management, of car manufacturers, professional racing drivers and amateur drivers, of the organisers as well as DMSB experts for safety and technical matters had come together in Frankfurt for a meeting in order to develop and prepare suggestions for solutions. “All parties agreed that everything needs to be done to avoid accidents in which spectators may suffer”, said Stuck. “We have now adopted provisions which allow temporarily to continue racing – albeit to a limited extend. The DMSB will simultaneously appoint an expert commission with the task to develop medium-term solutions to be applied immediately after the racing season, if possible. This may include comprehensive regulation changes as well as possible construction works.”
The following provisions shall be introduced with immediate application: The cars of the top classes shall be slowed down in reducing the engine power by five percent. In order to avoid a dangerous take-off, the speed must be reduced at the crucial track sections such as Flugplatz, Schwedenkreuz and Antoniusbuche. This will be implemented by introducing a maximum speed of 200 km/h several hundred metres before each of these track sections (250 km/h at the Döttinger Höhe). This speed shall be checked – similar to situations of warning signals given by showing the ‘yellow flag’ – by GPS and severe penalties shall be applied in cases of infringements. After passing the speed limit zone, the cars may accelerate again so that they will pass the crucial sections at their individual speed. As the acceleration is however reduced, the cars will arrive at the track sections Flugplatz, Schwedenkreuz and Antoniusbuche with a clearly slower speed than before. At the same time, sudden braking is excluded.
Moreover, some parts of the spectator areas in the track sections Flugplatz, Schwedenkreuz, Metzgesfeld and Pflanzgarten will temporarily not be available in their entirety until construction works are completed and spectators can again be fully accommodated in these areas. The provisional ban of cars in vehicle classes SP7, SP8, SP8T, SP9, SP-Pro, SP-X as well as Cup-2, in the GT classes of H4, the E1-XP1, E1-XP2 and E1-XP Hybrid to compete in DMSB approved race events at the Nürburgring Nordschleife was lifted.
“Due to the adopted package of measures, the events scheduled to take place at the Nordschleife in the next weeks may for the time being take place. The DMSB will at the same time very carefully observe the race events and the appointed expert commission will develop suitable measures to ensure safe and fair motorsport at the Nordschleife for the coming years”, said Hans-Joachim Stuck.
