The 2015 season of Joel Camathias ended with flames and fire, in the letteral meaning of the expression: a fire, provoked by a broken fuel pipe, has stopped the Porsche 911R of the Swiss driver after a few laps of the 6 Hours of Vallelunga, the Roman endurance race that closed the 2015 season and the Endurance Champions Cup. Luckily, Joel could escape unhurt and contributed afterwards to extinguish the fire.

Together with Giuseppe Ghezzi and Dario Cerati on the Autorlando Sport Porsche 911R, Joel lived a difficult weekend, with the car losing free practice sessions because of engine issues, but the start of the race looked very promising, with Camathias keeping the pace of the front-runners. Unfortunately, it did not last long.

Joel Camathias:

“It has really been an unlucky weekend, started with engine problems that stopped us during the free practice sessions. Once the engine was changed, we could do the qualifying session while trying at the same time to catch up the lost time to work on the car’s set-up. Despite all that, in the opening laps of the race, we really had a good pace, staying with the front-runners.   Unfortunately, less than half-hour into the race, flames broke into the cockpit, really close to my back and helmet. It was really fast and I only had the time to stop in a safe area and jump out of the car. It was quite scary! After, I had to take myself a fire extinguisher and help the marshals, as they did not seem able to cope with the situation alone. At least, I could save the car!”