INDYCAR

Mannequin Georgina hit after falling onto track during IndyCar race

It’s not often you’re engrossed in a high-powered car race and then something resembling a human falls down from a bridge.

Joe Skibinski/IndyCarEFE

OK, OK, first things first. There have been no injuries to anyone in this story... well, unless you count the feelings of the person responsible for securing the mannequin to the bridge.

The bridge in question was the one at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, where Sunday’s IndyCar Series race was unfolding. We were just past the halfway stage of the 90-lap race when suddenly the broadcast team on NBC Sports spotted something that had fallen onto the side of the track as the cars whizzed by. They were quick to help avoid any concern for us following the coverage and pointed out that it was not a human, but instead a mannequin that went by the name of Georgina.

The commentators did, however, question whether the partial obstacle was enough to warrant the race to be paused to tidy up. It was fine.

You see, there is a pedestrian bridge that crosses at that point on the racetrack and Georgina is just one of several arty items that decorate the course. Or, at least, was.

Although she, I mean, ‘it’ fell onto the grass siding, one part of the body was left hanging dangerously over the tarmac: a wrist. And it didn’t take long before one of the speeding machines took care of that. Ouchie!

As an aside, Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin went on to win the race.