Racing driver left high and dry after airport parking flips his BMW

Losing your luggage may be one of the worst things that can happen at the airport, but one unfortunate racing driver discovered yesterday that there’s something even worse.

Peter Dumbreck, an endurance racing driver currently signed to the Falken Tyres team, had been tweeting of his airport woes after returning from a weekend race at the Nürburgring circuit. First his flight from Frankfurt Airport was delayed and rerouted via Hamburg, and then the airline lost his luggage.

But the worst was yet to come. The 44-year-old tweeted: “As I was reporting my bag lost to Lufthansa the parking company called to say my M3 couldn’t be delivered…” The accompanying photo soon showed the reason, as Dumbreck’s M3 was a write-off.

No details about the incident have been given, but judging by the way the M3’s roof and windscreen are completely caved in, it appears to have been rolled over.

Very luckily, the driver wasn’t badly injured in the incident, since a powerful vehicle such as the M3 certainly has the potential for a scary crash in the wrong hands. With 414bhp on tap from its naturally aspirated V8 engine, it’s capable of 155mph as standard or up to 178mph with the electronic limiter removed.

Dumbreck appeared fairly calm about the incident though, tweeting: “People make mistakes and thankfully I heard the driver is not too badly injured. Saying that, if I owned the parking company, I would have been on the phone by now!”

There was at least a small happy ending though, as Dumbreck’s luggage – containing an expensive Arai race helmet, neck support and Alpinestars race suit – has been located and is on its way to him.

Social media was awash with sympathy, with many responding to Dumbreck’s tweet with horror stories of their own. “Valet parker sent my HR boss’s Tesla into a brick wall at 30mph,” commented one. “Needless to say, the wall had the last laugh.”

Another will certainly be keeping their fingers crossed, having commented: “As someone who’s [sic] M3 is currently with a car parking company at an airport, this makes me very sad and also a little bit worried.”

It’s unknown which parking company was used or to which airport Dumbreck was flying.