5 of the Weirdest Debuts in Motorsports

5 of the Weirdest Debuts in Motorsports

By Brian Cotnoir

All athletes in all sports take time and development to mature before they’re ready for their professional debuts.  It can be as simple as playing for a college team, or going through the ranks of a minor league/farm system, or in the case of Auto Racing a gradual progression through various racing series.  It is a dream come true to finally be there at the top, to know all your hard work and training are about to finally pay off; you hope that everything goes perfectly, but sometimes the absolute bizarre occur during a race season, and you can’t always count on things to go according to plan.  These are the 5 weirdest debuts in Motorsports

1.)  Michael Schumacher (F1)

Who could have known at the start of the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix, the world was about to witness the debut of the one of the Greatest Drivers the World has ever seen.  Michael Schumacher made his debut in F1 for the brand new Jordan team after the team’s regular driver, Bertrand Gachot, had been sentenced to 2 months in prison in England for assaulting a London Taxi Driver.  To my knowledge this is the only time a driver’s official cause for missing a race as “imprisonment”. 

Schumacher surprised everyone when the qualified his car in the 7^th position.  Schumacher wouldn’t even make 1 lap in his Formula 1 debut, as he suffered clutch failure shortly after the start of the race and retired.   Not the best start to an F1 career. But just one year later and Schumacher would return to Spa-Francochamps—this time driving for the highly competitive Benneton team—and would score his first of a record 91 career victories in Formula One.

2.)  Erik Jones (NASCAR Cup Series)

Many drivers have made their debuts in Motorsports relieving an injured driver, but I think Erik Jones is the only NASCAR driver to make his Cup Series debut in the middle of a race!

At the 2015 Food City 500 at the Bristol Motor Speedway, following a lengthy red flag for rain, driver Denny Hamlin began to suffer neck spasms, and Erik Jones was tapped to relieve Hamlin.  Jones wound up finishing 26^th in the race, but because he did not start the race, he did not receive credit for the finish.  Jones’s official first start in the Cup Series came at Kansas later that year filling in for the injured Kyle Busch.  He wound up crashing and finishing in the 40^th position.     Jones would be tapped again to fill in for driver Matt Kenseth who was suspended by NASCAR for 2 races for intentionally wrecking driver Joey Logano!  Jones had subbed for 3-of-the-4 full-time drivers at Joe Gibbs Racing in the 2015 season.

3.)  Hans Heyer (F1)

This one’s well-known by fans of Formula 1, but for those not familiar with it, you’re in for a real treat.  German driver Hans Heyer failed to qualify for the 1977 German Grand Prix, but that wasn’t going to stop him from participating in the race.  Heyer actually managed to sneak into the race from the pit lane and ran 9 laps before his Penske-Ford suffered a gear linkage failure.  It was only after he retired from the race that it was discovered that Heyer shouldn’t have been on the track at all, and he promptly disqualified from a race he didn’t even qualify for.  To date Heyer remains the only driver in Formula 1 History to have a Did Not Qualify, a Did Not Finish, and a Disqualification

4.)  Paulie Haraka (NASCAR Cup Series)

Your first NASCAR Cup Series race can be an exciting experience, but it can also cause you to feel pretty nervous.  Expectations for you are low—for the most part—but still you hope you don’t embarrass yourself.   However, I don’t think anyone can embarrass themselves as badly as Paulie Harraka did in his Cup Series Debut.

Prior to his Cup Series debut, Harraka’s made most of his NASCAR starts in the Truck Series for the floundering Wauters Motorsports, where he made 11 starts and had a best finish of 17^th place.  Despite the poor results in the Truck Series, Harraka was tabbed to make his Cup Series debut at the 2013 Toyota/Save Mart 350 at the Infineon road course.  Harraka qualified in 40^th place, and crashed into the back of driver Alex Kennedy (who was also making his Cup Series Debut) on pit road before the race even started.  Harraka’s team spent the first 21 laps of the races making repairs to the car, and his only managed to fish in the 39^th position.  That is Harraka’s only Cup Series start to date, and easily gets my Vote for Most Embarrassing Cup Debut

5.)  Kyle Larson (NASCAR Grand National)

Before he became a social pariah, Kyle Larson was once touted as The Next Jeff Gordon.  After making a handful of starts in the NASCAR Truck Series in 2012, Larson was ready for his first full-time season in the NASCAR Grand National Series.  At the Season Opening Race at Daytona, Kyle Larson was running up towards the front in the 5h position coming to the checkered flag, when Brad Keselowski turned race leader Regan Smith into the wall. 

That's Not Supposed to Happen

Larson would be collected in the wreck and his #32 Clorox Bleach Chevrolet was tossed into the fence and had its entire front end ripped off.  Larson quickly emerged from his car uninjured and it just was a great relief to see him walk away from that wreck.  Larson would officially finish in the 13^th position and unfortunately 28 fans were struck and injured by debris from Larson’s car that flew into the grand stands.  The iconic image of Larson standing next to his destroyed race car is one of the most iconic images in NASCAR’s recent history and for many fans was their 1^st introduction to Larson.