Fatality a Reminder of Racing’s Dangers
Driving a race car is inherently dangerous. There is no getting around it.
“I know, every time I get in my race car, there is a possibility I might not come back, but by utilizing every safety precaution I know of, I have confidence in myself, my car and my environment,” said Wally Pankratz, a veteran of 400 U.S. Auto Club midget car and hundreds of other open-wheel races.
Pankratz is also an instructor at a driving school at Irwindale Speedway, where a stock car driver was killed during a NASCAR race Saturday night.
“There are tracks where I won’t race where I feel it is too dangerous, but I don’t have that feeling at Irwindale. No track is completely safe, but Irwindale is as safe as any you will find.”
With concrete walls.
Bob Hoekstra, a race car engineering professor at the University of Central Florida, said during a Performance Racing Industry round-table discussion earlier this year in Indianapolis that Dale Earnhardt’s direct-impact speed--a complicated engineering measurement of the car’s speed had it hit head-on, not taking into account the lateral speed--was only 43 mph when he hit the wall and was killed in last year’s Daytona 500.
“The frightening thing is, a lot of [short track] drivers are going a lot faster than that,” Hoekstra said. “You can get hurt on a short track just as easy as you can on a big track.”
Straightaway speeds at Irwindale range from about 125 mph for a midget or sprint car to 120 mph for a NASCAR Southwest series car such as John Baker was driving when he crashed last week. Even driving-school cars go fast. Indy car driver Sam Hornish Jr. reached 112 mph in one.
An investigation by the Charlotte Observer revealed that 270 people, 29 of them spectators, had died in racing accidents in this country in the last 10 years. Most of them were at tracks of a half-mile or less.
Baker was Irwindale’s fourth fatality in its four years.
Older drivers, according to Joe Balash of the American Speed Assn., are more likely to resist changes in safety equipment than younger drivers.
“The younger drivers, the ones newest to the sport, embrace the changes more easily,” Balash told the PRI gathering. “The challenge comes from the seasoned veterans, who have been racing for a long period of time and haven’t had an incident that would make them change the equipment they have in their vehicle.
“It’s harder for them to relate to the new terminology, things like “neck tension.’ But then they have an accident, and they reevaluate what they need inside their race car.”
Safety is an ongoing process, as it has been in racing ever since Barney Oldfield first shocked Angelenos in 1903 by getting his Bullet over 100 mph in an exhibition at old Agricultural Park.
NASCAR, which moved at glacial speed after Earnhardt’s death before mandating use of head-and-shoulder restraints for all competitors, is taking a speedier approach to the use of “soft walls.”
The SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) barrier, used during the Indianapolis 500 with positive results, will be modified for use during NASCAR’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis in August.
Because of the difference in weight between 3,500-pound Winston Cup cars and 1,550-pound Indy cars, the “soft walls” will be thickened with additional energy-absorbing foam.
NASCAR officials, however, rejected a request from New Hampshire International Speedway to install SAFER walls. It was at New Hampshire that NASCAR drivers Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin died in 2000 in separate accidents after crashing into the unprotected concrete wall.
“We are extremely pleased with the results at Indianapolis, where drivers took some very hard hits without serious injuries, but we are not yet ready to put barriers up at other tracks,” said Dean L. Sicking, director of the University of Nebraska’s Midwest Roadside Safety Facility, which worked with the Indy Racing League in developing the soft walls. Sicking has spearheaded the program for Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Tony George.
“Our next project is to develop a barrier that will be applicable at all tracks, but our only testing has been for Indianapolis. Most other tracks have much shorter radius turns, which creates totally different situations.
“In order to build walls for shorter tracks, or tracks with sharper turns, we have to change the barrier configuration. However, I think within three years we will have SAFER barriers designed for use at all ovals and tri-ovals.”
Timing Is Everything
Chip Ganassi, who has teams in both open-wheel series, was in Laguna Seca for the CART race last weekend but was talking with some potential sponsors for his Indy Racing League team when he turned on the TV to watch the final laps of the IRL race Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway. His Target team driver, Jeff Ward, was in the process of winning one of the most exciting races of the year.
Ward edged Al Unser Jr. by .0111 of a second at Texas, the closest finish in IRL history.
Said Ward this week, “I heard that Mike Hull, who manages Chip Ganassi Racing, was at the hotel and didn’t want to leave, because with 20 laps to go, he had a feeling we were going to win. He had to go to the meeting with Chip, and I guess they turned on the TV and the Target people were there and whoever else they were meeting with on sponsorship and there, behold, we won the race.
“He was doing back flips, so it had to be a pretty positive thing for the program next year.
“You couldn’t do a better presentation than to have an actual race going on and have your driver win the race when you’re talking about selling your product.”
Tear ‘Em Up
Perris Auto Speedway should have an oversized field of demolition derby drivers Saturday night after Irwindale Speedway canceled its similar race the same night to reconfigure its track barriers. Just when stock car racing authorities are searching for better and safer ideas for cars and tracks, Saturday night’s program will showcase how to best smash, crash and pummel cars. The last driver left with a car that can move will receive $1,000 for surviving.
Perris will also have Figure 8 racing, which at times can be as destructive as a demolition derby. It also is going another wild step further with its pick-a-part cruiser class, which features two drivers--one to control the steering wheel and brakes, the other the accelerator.
For purists, there will also be legitimate racing on the half-mile clay oval with super stocks and street stocks.
Last Laps
CART, apparently unable to find engine builders willing to provide new 3.5 liter non-turbocharged engines for 2003, is expected to announce a return to its current turbocharged engine rule for next year. Honda, Ford and Toyota announced their intention of leaving CART because of the change, leaving the sanctioning body with only Judd Engineering as an engine supplier under the name MG. If CART does an about-face and returns to 2.65 liter turbocharged engines, they will be supplied by Ford Cosworth.
Ralph Sanchez, highly successful Miami race promoter, has been named to the CART board of directors, replacing deposed president Joe Heitzler.... Four-time national unlimited hydroplane champion Mark Tate is coming out of a year’s retirement to drive U-2 Miss Trendwest in the Budweiser Unlimited Hydroplane series. The first event is scheduled June 28-30 on the Ohio River at Evansville, Ind.
The Sprint Car Racing Assn. will make its first appearance of the year at Santa Maria Speedway on Saturday night.
Passings
Jack DeArmond Sr., who raced sprint cars with the California Racing Assn. in the 1960s and ‘70s, died Tuesday after suffering a heart attack Saturday night at Perris Auto Speedway. DeArmond, 67, was stricken moments after watching his son, Jack Jr., win a Sprint Car Racing Assn. heat.
Services for stock car driver John Baker will be held Saturday at 10 a.m. at St. Pius Catholic Church in Tucson. Baker’s survivors include his wife, Robin, and twin 16-month-old boys, John Jr. and Jason. The family is requesting that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Motor Racing Outreach, Smith Tower, Suite 405, 5565 Concord Parkway South, Concord, N.C. 28027.