Incredibly close photo finishes in racing make for spectacular viewing and have occurred numerous times in all sorts of sports, including horse racing, athletics and even motorsport.
A recent example in motorsport that caught worldwide media attention occurred in the American NASCAR series at the Daytona 500 race. Denny Hamlin beat Martin Truex Jr. to the finish line by just 0.011 seconds.
You might assume that these sort of close finishes occur more often in TV and movies then they do in real life, but actually, the recent race in Daytona is just one of many examples of ultra tight finishes in motorsport. Here we pick out five of the closest and most stunning race finishes in history between two or more competitors.
Formula 1 - 1986 Spanish Grand Prix
In most Formula 1 races in the past the winning driver had a clear lead to some extent when they crossed the finishing line. Every now and again however, drivers will end up fighting for position side-by-side right up until the end and even if it isn’t always for first place, it always makes for spectacular viewing.
One of the most famous examples of such a conclusion occurred at the 1986 Spanish Grand Prix, where Lotus’s Ayrton Senna battled with Williams driver Nigel Mansell and McLaren’s Alain Prost to protect his lead at the Jarama circuit. Whereas Prost eventually faded away, Mansell caught up to Senna in the last ten laps on fresher tyres.
Mansell got up alongside Senna on the main straight in the final lap and had the finishing line been any further away he would have surely won. But Senna just about did enough defensively to win by a margin of just 0.014 seconds.
American Le Mans Series - 2012 Road Race Showcase
The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) consists of multiple endurance races which can last anywhere between 2 hours or 12 hours. It’s common in endurance racing for the winning driver to win by multiple laps, but when the top two cars are on the same number of laps near the end, the tension really builds up.
This is what happened during the ALMS race at the Road America circuit back in 2012. After 4 hours of intense racing, Guy Smith in his Mazda race car beat Lucas Luhr by just 0.083 seconds, despite a bold overtake move on the last turn by Luhr.
NASCAR - 2003 Carolina Dodge Dealers 400
While the finish at the 2016 Daytona 500 was undoubtedly incredibly close, it’s not the closest finish between first and second there’s ever been in NASCAR. In fact, that race doesn’t even make the top ten.
The closest finishing margin in NASCAR history is just 0.002 seconds, which has occurred at two races. The first was at a 2003 race held at Darlington Raceway. With the finish in sight, Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch ended up rubbing the side of their cars against one another and they remained locked together even when they’d both already finished the race.
Even with slo-mo replays it was near impossible to tell who had actually won, but it was determined that the bumper of Craven’s Pontiac edged ahead.
BTCC - 2009 Brands Hatch
British motorsport has a history of close race finishes and one of the most stunning examples occurred during the 2009 season of the British Touring Car Championship.
During one of the races held at Brands Hatch that season, BTCC veteran Jason Plato got right behind race leader Tom Chilton. As the cars got nearer the end it looked like Chilton’s Ford Focus would just about keep Plato behind.
But through the last corner of the track, Plato was able to carry more momentum and narrowly squeezed his Chevrolet past Chilton, beating him to the finish by 0.015 seconds.
Indy Lights - 2013 Freedom 100
Seeing two cars finish the race less than a tenth of a second apart is dramatic enough, but what if you could double that and make it four cars crossing the line side-by-side. Sounds awesome but too ridiculous for reality, right? Well it has actually happened before, specifically in the 2013 Freedom 100 race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The Freedom 100 traditionally takes place a couple of days before the Indy 500 and runs on the same oval circuit, albeit with less powerful Indy Lights race cars.
They may not be as powerful as the IndyCars but in 2013 the Indy Lights served up one of the most epic race finishes of all time. The winner beat the nearest competitor by an insanely small margin of 0.0026 seconds. If you haven’t seen the video above before, have fun guessing which car comes out on top!
