CART Has No Regrets About Safe-Over-Sorry Approach

The racing movie “Driven” opened last week in theaters, showcasing breathtaking speed and spectacular crashes. Clearly, Joe Heitzler wanted all the danger to remain on the silver screen.

When 21 of 25 race car drivers indicated they had experienced lightheadedness or dizziness because of excessive G-forces, Heitzler made the rare decision to pull the plug on the Firestone Firehawk 600 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Heitzler, president and CEO of Championship Auto Racing Teams, has been criticized for postponing the race only two hours before its scheduled start on the high-banked 1.5-mile oval. Knowing what he knew, the questions he answered this week pale in significance to those he would have been asked if CART raced anyway and something tragic happened.

“Pass out at 240 mph, you’re probably not going to wake up,” Bryan Herta said.

And that’s why Heitzler made the most important decision he has made in his first five months.

“We’re not going to let anything happen to the drivers,” Heitzler said. “And we’re not going to let anything happen to the fans.”

Herta and Michael Andretti were among the four drivers who did not experience the vertigo-like symptoms of G-loading, in which pressure on one’s body is too much to maintain consciousness or clarity. Neither had sustained runs at more than 230 mph, which contributed to the G-loading effect. The race was scheduled for 250 laps.

Because Herta, of Valencia, is a road-course specialist who had qualified fourth on the oval, he had a lot to lose by not racing. He might have had more to lose if he had.

“What they did was almost heroic in a way,” Herta said. “The easy thing to do would have been to close your eyes and push through and hope for the best. The tough thing was to do what they did. We can’t put drivers out there with potential to black out.”

And that was a very real possibility. Sustained vertical and lateral G-forces created by speeds of more than 230 mph on the 24-degree banked oval had drivers experiencing up to 5 1/2 Gs. A range within 3 Gs, or three times the body weight, is considered safe for drivers. They typically only experience significant side-to-side or lateral Gs. Tony Kanaan’s telemetry indicated he was pulling 6.3 Gs coming out of Turn 2, which is where Mauricio Gugelmin and Cristiano da Matta crashed during practices.

The military requires its pilots to wear pressurized suits on flights in which they are expected to encounter more than 4 Gs.

“We have found an area where we can say what is too fast,” said Andretti, who races Sunday at his hometown track in Nazareth, Pa., at the Lehigh Valley Grand Prix. “We apologize to the fans, but the potential of losing the life of a driver is definitely not worth the risk of going on with the show.”

Comparably, Terry Labonte set the Winston Cup track record at Texas Motor Speedway at 192.137 mph. Billy Boat held the overall track record with a 1998 qualifying run of 225.979 for an Indy Racing League event. Last weekend, four CART drivers topped 236 mph in practice, and 22 of 25 exceeded 230 mph, sustaining the extreme G-forces for 18 of the 22 seconds around the track.

The feelings were new even to an old-timer like Andretti, who is in his 18th season.

“The forces put on your body when you went through a corner were just incredible, like all your organs were smooshing down in your body,” he said. “It was a real strain.”

Unnoticed in the furor surrounding Heitzler’s decision is that something as simple as rain could have forced the same delay. It was CART’s first postponement over a safety issue since 1985, when a race at Michigan Speedway was delayed seven days because of concerns about tires.

Herta said CART is at a crossroads. “[It has] great racing, good rules package, good championship, yet is struggling on a national level for TV ratings,” he said. “Some races are hugely successful, others are just OK.

“CART has an opportunity here, because of all the publicity, both good and bad, to emphasize the positive. I hope the fans appreciate the honesty that CART has taken in this.”

So now what?

Heitzler, whose week got only tougher on Thursday when his plane to Pittsburgh was forced to make an emergency landing and he learned that Gugelmin’s 4-year-old son had died, has several ideas to do right by fans in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

He is considering full-page apologies in Texas newspapers, possibly providing admission to the street race in Houston or a sweepstakes for fan trips outside the Texas marketplace.

But he still wants to race at the Fort Worth track, which is unavailable from June 9 to Sept. 15 to prepare for a Winston Cup race.

Completing the race weekend this month puts it in conflict with Indianapolis 500 activities, and three CART teams will be racing there.

Other potential dates are Sept. 29, which is the off-week between a two-week trip to Europe and the Houston street race on Oct. 7, and Oct. 21, when the NHRA races in another Dallas suburb, Ennis, at the Texas Motorplex.

Heitzler mentioned at a teleconference this week the possibility of racing after the Nov. 4 season-ending event in Fontana when temperatures are lower, but that idea didn’t fly with Bill Miller, president and general manager of California Speedway.

“I was a little surprised to [hear] that,” Miller said. “The premise of our relationship is that California Speedway would host the season finale.”

SUPERCROSS

The final race of the Supercross season is scheduled Saturday night at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas. Ricky Carmichael has already sewn up his first 250cc title. It does provide a chance for Jeremy McGrath to show that he isn’t ready to roll over, especially where his Supercross records are concerned. If Carmichael wins in Las Vegas, he will tie McGrath’s record for victories in a season, 14, and consecutive victories, 13.

McGrath, who failed to win the title for the first time since 1997, is second in the standings. Carmichael, of Havana, Fla., has 367 points. McGrath has 306 and third-place Mike LaRocco of South Bend, Ind., has 271.

RALLY DRIVING

John Buffum, an 11-time national champion with 115 victories, is among those participating today and Saturday at the Sports Car Club of America’s 18th Rim of the World ProRally in Palmdale. Buffum, driving the Libra Racing production-class Tiburon, takes to the dirt and gravel fire roads of the Angeles National Forest near Lake Hughes in the fourth of 10 SCCA ProRally Championship events.

Buffum, in semi-retirement, said he will race “two or three” events this season.

Six stages will be raced tonight, beginning at 7 with the mile-long spectator stage at the Holiday Inn headquarters. Drivers, in their only Southern California appearance, then move into the foothills for the series’ most demanding race. The first car should finish tonight about 11:55.

Nine stages will be raced on Saturday, beginning at noon, with the first car finishing about 10 p.m.

The Open Class is being billed as the strongest field in series history. It includes reigning champion Paul Choiniere in a Hyundai Tiburon, defending race winner Pete Lahm in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IV, Rhys Millen, also in a Lancer Evolution IV, and Oregon Trail winner Mark Lovell in a Subaru Impreza.

Defending Group N race winner Karl Scheible will debut the new-style Prodrive Subaru Impreza WRX.

Besides the ProRally, the SCCA ClubRally and California Rally Series will also participate.

LAST LAPS

Saturday racing at Irwindale features super late models, TQ midgets, American race trucks, MSRA Pro4 modifieds and NASCAR modified 4s. Racing will follow the 10th Community College Vocational-Technical Fair, 2-7 p.m. There will be a display of classic and racing motorcycles, as well as appearances by riders Eddie Mulder, who was Ascot Park’s biggest winner from 1962-70; Dick Hammer, a Tourist Trophy and road racer from the 1960s; Skip Van Leeuwen, who won five T T nationals at Ascot Park in the 1960s; Ernie Aragon, an expert sporting event rider from 1965-75, and J.D. Williams, who began racing on the beach at Daytona in the late 1950s and became a successful cross-country rider.

Speedway motorcycle rider Chris Manchester of Reno has won on each of the first two nights at the Orange County Speedway. Manchester won the handicap main event in the season opener, then won the scratch main event last week. . . . USAC midgets and trucks will be racing Saturday at Perris Auto Speedway. . . .

The Featherlite Southwest series will have its longest race of the season on Saturday, the Star Nursery 250, on the .375-mile oval bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. M.K. Kanke of Frazier Park has the series lead.

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This Week’s Races

WINSTON CUP

Pontiac Excitement 400

* When: Today, qualifying, 12:30 p.m. (FX, 2 p.m., tape); Saturday, race (FX, 5 p.m.)

* Where: Richmond International Raceway (tri-oval, .75 of a mile, 14-degree banking in turns), Richmond, Va.

* Race distance: 300 miles, 400 laps.

* Last race: Rusty Wallace held off two-time winner Jeff Gordon in a 19-lap shootout at the end and won the NAPA Auto Parts 500 at California Speedway in Fontana.

* 2000 winner: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

* Next race: Coca-Cola 600, May 27, Concord, N.C.

* On the net: https://www.nascar.com.

BUSCH

Hardee’s 250

* When: Today, race (FX, 5 p.m.)

* Where: Richmond International Raceway.

* Race distance: 187.5 miles, 250 laps.

* Last race: Hank Parker Jr. gambled and won, running the final 62 of 150 laps in the Auto Club 300 on a tank of gas at California Speedway.

* 2000 winner: Jeff Green.

* Next race: CVS Pharmacy 200, May 12, Loudon, N.H.

* On the net: https://www.nascar.com.

CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS

Ram Tough 250

* When: Saturday, qualifying, noon; Sunday, race (ESPN, 1 p.m.)

* Where: Gateway International Raceway (oval, 1.25 miles, 11-degree banking in Turns 1-2, 9 degrees in Turns 3-4).

* Race distance: 200 miles, 160 laps.

* Last race: Scott Riggs passed up a tire-change stop and won the Advance Auto Parts 250 at Martinsville Speedway.

* 2000 winner: Jack Sprague.

* Next race: Darlington 200, May 12, Darlington, S.C.

* On the net: https://www.nascar.com.

CART

Lehigh Valley Grand Prix

* When: Saturday, qualifying, 10:15 a.m. (ESPN2, 9:30 p.m., tape); Sunday, race (ABC, 10 a.m.)

* Where: Nazareth Speedway (tri-oval, .946 of a mile, 1-degree banking in Turn 1, 4 degrees in Turn 2, 6 degrees in Turns 3-4), Nazareth, Pa.

* Race distance: 212.85 miles, 225 laps.

* Last race: CART called off its inaugural race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth when some drivers became dizzy and disoriented after practicing for the Firestone Firehawk 600.

* 2000 winner: Gil de Ferran.

* Next race: Firestone Firehawk 500, May 19, Motegi, Japan.

* On the net: https://www.cart.com.

NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSN.

Advance Auto Parts Nationals

* When: Today, first-round qualifying, 10:45 a.m.; Saturday, second-round qualifying, 7:45 a.m.; Sunday, final eliminations, 7:30 a.m. (TNN, 1:30 p.m., tape).

* Where: Atlanta Dragway, Commerce, Ga.

* Last event: Doug Kalitta became the first top fuel repeat winner of the season in the Mac Tools Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway in Bristol, Tenn. Ron Capps won in the funny car division and Greg Anderson in pro stock.

* 2000 winners: Gary Scelzi, top fuel; John Force, funny car; Jeg Coughlin, pro stock.

* Next event: Matco Tools Supernationals, May 20, Englishtown, N.J.

* On the net: https://www.nhra.com.