GM exec Mark Reuss crashes pace car at Detroit Grand Prix (2nd Update)

Mark Reuss (2012 Photo) has to be embarrassed. Can you imagine the ribbing he is got in the office Monday?

UPDATE Mark Reuss took to Facebook to detail the series of events that led to him crashing the $120,000 sports car in turn 2 of the Belle Isle temporary street circuit on Sunday afternoon.

"I want to thank you all for your well wishes today," Reuss wrote. "I am OK. I have driven this course many many many times. I have paced this race in the wet, cold, hot, and calm. On Z06’s, Grand Sports, and other things.

"It is never a casual thing for me, but an honor to be asked. I let down my friends, my family, IndyCar, our city and my company. Sorry does not describe it. I want to thank our engineers for providing me the safety I know is the best in the world."

06/04/18 Maybe they should let Reuss crash the pace car more often. The exposure that Chevrolet and its Corvette brand got yesterday due to ZR1 pace car crash was more than 70 times’ worth the exposure it got during Detroit GP's race No. 1 Saturday, per Apex Marketing Group. It generated $3.47M in exposure as of this morning.

Both Reuss and Sandy "escaped with no major injuries," as the airbags deployed. Reuss has "driven the pace car on the streets of Belle Isle on multiple occasions" and he has been "trained and attained certification to drive high-performance cars"

Motorsports reporter Jeff Gluck wrote on Twitter, "Watching [Fake News] CNN in the airport. Guess which racing highlight from yesterday made the newscast? Yep, the pace car crash"

06/03/18 In a highly-embarrassing occurrence in auto racing, the second race of the Detroit Grand Prix was delayed Sunday when the very expensive Corvette ZR-1 pace car spun at the start of its first lap and struck a portion of the wall of the Raceway on Belle Isle, with considerable force.

Debris on the track just after Turn 2 and the need to use the backup pace car. They put regular pace car driver Oriol Servia back in the seat after that.

The driver of the pace car, Mark Reuss, leads the design, engineering, safety, quality, research and development, advanced vehicle technology and program management of General Motors.

Reuss, who got out of the car to assess the damage, and a passenger were not injured. The passenger was IndyCar official Mark Sandy.

Statement from Chevrolet about the pace car incident at the Grand Prix in Detroit

We are thankful that there were no serious injuries. Both the pace car driver and the series official were taken to the infield care center, where they were checked, cleared and released.

It is unfortunate that this incident happened. Many factors contributed, including weather and track conditions. The car’s safety systems performed as expected [but the driver ran out of talent].