Remember the scene in the James Bond film 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' when a 1969 Mercury Cougar enters a race track and accidentally joins a Mini stock car race? A similar situation happened in real-life back in October when the driver of a Mini Cooper S took a wrong turn and somehow ended up invading a race with Mercedes-AMG CLA 45 cars.
Amazingly, a very similar incident has happened again at the same Interlagos racetrack in Brazil. Video footage shared on social media shows the driver of a Mercedes-Benz GLA accidentally driving into the pit lane during a race after getting lost. Realizing their embarrassing mistake, the sheepish GLA driver tries to turn around in the path of oncoming racecars, blocking the pit lane in the process.
Fortunately, an approaching racer spots the GLA in the distance and applies the brakes just in time. As they watch the GLA driver struggle to turn the SUV around, the racing driver raises their hands in disbelief.
A few seconds later, a modified Chevrolet Camaro enters the pit lane at high speed. This driver seems to have slower reaction times because they barely stop in time and end up just a few inches away from the GLA. With nowhere else to go, the GLA driver is forced to turn around again and rejoin the race track to find a way out. Luckily, the invasive GLA driver didn't cause any accidents, but this mistake could have easily resulted in a multiple car pileup.
Apparently, it's surprisingly easy to get lost around the Interlagos circuit and accidentally end up on the track during a live race. The racetrack complex often has several events happening at the same time such as music concerts, but the parking lots are poorly signposted, making it easy to get lost and cause incidents like this.
"I've been in a concert there and the exit of the parking lot was so poorly signalized at night that several cars ended driving for few kilometers on the track (me included) until we found an exit," one user wrote on Reddit. Let's hope the signposting is improved before someone causes an accident on the racetrack.