Tesla driver gets lost and drives onto the track during motorcycle race – Jalopnik

An American Federation of Motorcyclists race was red-flagged due to a highly unusual obstacle on the track: a Tesla Model Y traveling in the opposite direction of race traffic before officials stopped it. The Tesla had somehow ended up on the hot track at Buttonwillow Raceway Park and, from his perspective, was slowly driving down the right side as if it were just another road, reports The drive. This appears to be human error, not intentional road rage or a glitch in the full self-driving car.

The errant Tesla entered the track during Race 7 of the final round of the season. The entire race was streamed live and much of the incident was captured on video. Race officials called for a red flag, which halts the race and clears the track, as soon as they spotted the Tesla on the track. One officer stopped the car and gave the driver a stern talking to as he waved past motorcycle traffic. After the track cleared, a UTV came out and led the lost Tesla back to the pit area, where the driver got another earful from the race officials before being led away.

Buttonwillow has a Tesla Supercharger facility on the north side of the track, easily accessible from nearby Interstate 5. This is likely what the Model Y was looking for when it got lost. It appears to be just a few fast turns from the I-5 exit, and nowhere near an active part of the track. The latest Street View images from January 2024 don’t show a Supercharger yet, so we don’t know how well or poorly the Supercharger is marked.

There may have been some side comment made to me that Elon Musk is out to get us. First, our Starlink is down and we are running this entire program from Kevin Fanaday’s hotspot cell phone. Yes, in fact we are running this program on a mobile phone. And now a Tesla has tried to stop our race. And so we think that Elon has a personal vendetta against the AFM.

This particular driver certainly made some bad decisions that could have given the racers a very bad day. Tesla drivers have a reputation for this, but the driver of any car could have made such a mistake. I also have to wonder how the Tesla managed to get onto a hot track in the first place. Although the circuits have access points around them where emergency vehicles can enter quickly if necessary, these must all be blocked off when the track is hot.

I have participated in many track days myself, both on two and four wheels. For me, the best part of these events is that you can ride harder and faster than you should on public roads because it is a closed, controlled environment. The corner workers will wave flags to warn you of dangers ahead, and if those flags are missing, you know you can go as fast as your vehicle and skills allow. No child will chase a stray ball onto the track, random wildlife won’t (usually) cross in front of you, and random Teslas won’t drive straight at you. Except that’s exactly what happened here. The corner workers did a great job of controlling the situation once the Tesla was on the track, but it should not have been able to get onto the track in the first place.