Marlon Birdsall crashes through the barrier at Assen, Supercar Challenge finale abandoned

Supercar Challenge GT champion Marlon Birdsall walked away from a heavy crash at TT Circuit Assen on Sunday, after his #111 Koopman Racing BMW M6 GT3 went straight on at the end of the main straight and through the guardrail into the spectator area. Later medical checks found cracks in two of his vertebrae and a sprained elbow.

The crash, on the second lap of the endurance race, ended the season on the spot. The damage was too extensive to repair in time, so the race was stopped and declared not run.

Through the guardrail, the fence and a grandstand staircase

According to the official Supercar Challenge race report, the BMW went through the guardrail and the fences behind it and knocked loose a staircase of a grandstand. Birdsall climbed out straight away and walked from the wrecked car under his own power. The medical findings followed later, in the full race report published by Autosport.nl. Neither Birdsall nor Koopman Racing had published a statement when this article was written.

That part of the circuit was empty. Speedweek reported that there were no spectators in the section where the BMW came to rest.

Brake failure reported, a rain shower had just arrived

The series has not given a cause. Speedweek and Autosportwereld both reported that Birdsall lost his brakes going into the first corner. The official report adds that a sudden heavy rain shower had just hit the circuit: moments earlier his teammate Harry Barton, who started from pole, had gone into the gravel. Whether the wet track played a part has not been established.

A season ended by a broken barrier

The damage also cancelled the second Belcar Skylimit Sprint Cup race. In the Supercar Challenge, Berry van Elk of Blueberry Racing became Supersport Plus champion without the race being run.

Birdsall, a 19-year-old from Amsterdam who learned his racecraft on a simulator, had already clinched the GT title at Zandvoort earlier in October. At Assen he took pole for both sprint races in the GT3 BMW.

Our concern: an empty stand should not be the safety margin

A GT3 car that goes through the guardrail and the fence and reaches a grandstand is exactly what those barriers are there to prevent. On Sunday it ended with a cracked back and a damaged staircase, only because nobody was sitting there.

Assen is above all a motorcycle circuit and hosts cars far less often. The circuit and the organisers owe an explanation of how the BMW got through, and what changes before GT cars return.

Birdsall’s recovery comes first, Assen has a barrier to rebuild

The 2026 season is over, so Birdsall has the winter to let his back heal. The circuit has to rebuild the guardrail, the fencing and the grandstand before the next car meeting. All 2027 dates confirmed so far are in our motorsport calendar 2027.

We wish Marlon Birdsall a full and quick recovery.

Sources: Supercar Challenge official race reports (24 and 25 October 2026), Autosport.nl, Speedweek, Autosportwereld, Rodi.

Should Assen change the barriers at the end of its main straight before cars race there again? Tell us in the comments.