Newberry: IndyCar is clearly too risky; time to shut it down (2nd Update)
Just to prove you wrong, I actually hope there will be a fatality in F1 any time soon. Don't get me wrong, I don't want anyone dead, but your story about IndyCar is not only absolutely distasteful, but also completely excessive and too exaggerated, I can't find any other words for it.
F1 has gone through the eye of a needle so many times in the last few years, for example the Alonso – Raikkonen accident at the Red Bull Ring this year and Grosjean’s 'attack' on a few of his colleagues a few years ago at Spa. Oh yes, what about Webber's flip at Valencia and Kubica's head-on crash at Montreal … And let's not forget the start crash at Spa some ten, fifteen years ago, when almost all the cars were involved in an accident … All these examples could all have ended in tears quite easily.
What about the inferior products used in F1 nowadays, i.e. Pirelli tires? The two Pirelli blowouts at Spa last weekend could have ended in tears as well, and a few years ago the same happened at Silverstone … However, the Firestone tires used in IndyCar last longer and wear less, and they can do higher top-speeds i.e. up to 220 – 240 mph, and for a longer time, this compared to the 'pathetic' Pirelli tires (max speed maybe 200 mph…).
And how on earth do you want to compare stock cars called NASCAR to IndyCar, there is NO comparison there, none what so ever … unless of course you don't know or understand anything about motorsport, which is questionable whether you do.
And FYI, Aleshin actually competed at the Le Mans 24H race this year, so this weekend is NOT his comeback after one year (your quote: "Aleshin will finally return to the track this week at Sonoma"). This remark alone already makes your story about IndyCar untrustworthy and prejudiced.
The accidents which occurred to Justin Wilson and some of his rivals in IndyCar in the last decade, can also happen in any other race series, especially open wheel racing, from F1 to F4 and everything in between or around it. Just remember Henry Surtees at Brands Hatch a few years ago … RIP.
Track marshals have also been killed in F1, e.g. remember Frentzen's wheel at Monza which struck a marshal on the head. I hope I'm wrong, but I believe there was actually another fatality with a marshal in F1 somewhere else, but I can't recall where and when this was. As I said, hopefully I'm wrong …
Regarding the 'Maimed for life' drivers: In F1 this happened to Philippe Streiff and Clay Regazzoni, both already a long time ago, but so were the accidents for all three IndyCar drivers you mentioned in your article, i.e. old news.
For some reason you apparently don't like IndyCar, well, I tell, at moments like last Sunday I also hate it, of course I do, as does anyone else with their heart in the right place … But to blame it all on IndyCar and wishing IndyCar dead is just a bridge too far, this should NOT happen! IndyCar is there to entertain many fans from all over the world, and to give some F1 hopefuls a refuge place and other drivers a place to race in and battle each other with a lot of joy and fun. The joy and fun won't be there this weekend at Sonoma, and everyone there, and around the globe will remember Wilson as someone who was one of a kind … RIP.
I trust you will appreciate my comments (I'm Dutch, so I hope you will forgive my English), and (just maybe) have a second thought about what you wrote regarding IndyCar. In my (humble) opinion they don't deserve such comments.
There are many more 'dangerous sports' around, e.g. downhill skiing, cycling, motorbike racing, motorcross, horseback riding, speed skating, American football (see article below), paragliding, Ocean sailing, kite surfing, and some where there is actually no competition, but can only be done if you are 100% fit, i.e. mountain and rock climbing etc. In actual fact (almost) all sports are in one way or the other 'dangerous, whether you like it or not …
According to your logic then all these sports should be shut down, shouldn't they? Pieter Slinger, Holland
08/28/15 Time to shut down the NFL too if you use Newberry's logic. Each year in the U.S. an average of a dozen high school and college football players die during practices and games, according to a new study that finds heart conditions, heat and other non-traumatic causes of death are twice as common as injury-related ones.
Researchers reviewed data from the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research and found 243 football deaths recorded between July 1990 and June 2010.
One hundred of the fatalities resulted from an underlying heart condition, 62 were due to a brain injury – typically a subdural hematoma – and 38 were from heat-related causes, according to findings published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine.
Kelly Dougherty, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, said she found the number of heat-related deaths in particular "quite alarming."
08/28/15
| Most IndyCar deaths have been the result of impact to the driver's head. AR1.com has been calling for something to be done, like canopies, for over 5 years, but we still do not have canopies. This sort of article is very damaging to the sport. |
An AP story by Paul Newberry:
Justin Wilson. Dan Wheldon. Paul Dana.
Dead.
Tony Renna. Greg Moore. Scott Brayton.
Dead.
Alex Zanardi. Sam Schmidt. Davey Hamilton.
Maimed for life.
Dario Franchitti. Cristiano da Matta. Kenny Brack.
Forced to retire.
James Hinchcliffe. Mikhail Aleshin. Mike Conway.
Lucky to be alive.
Enough already. After the latest tragedy in IndyCar — Wilson's death from being struck on the top of the head by a piece of flying debris during a race last weekend at Pocono — it's time to shut down this ridiculously dangerous form of racing.
The IndyCar series is already on its last legs, plagued by poor attendance and minuscule television ratings.
But forget economics.
This is about doing what's right to prevent anyone else from meeting an untimely end.
Pray that everyone survives Sunday's season-ending race at Sonoma, then pull the plug.
It's already too late to undo the tragedy and mayhem of the last two decades. Going back to 1996, eight drivers, six fans, and one track official have been killed at IndyCar events, either in the current series or its predecessors, the Indy Racing League and CART-Champ Car.
One death is too many, but compared to two other major series, Formula One and NASCAR, IndyCar's mortality rate is simply unacceptable.
And it goes beyond those who paid the ultimate price. IndyCar has endured scores of serious injuries and life-changing wrecks — again, far more than those other series.
Zanardi had both legs ripped off in a crash. Schmidt is a quadriplegic. Hamilton underwent some two dozen surgeries after his feet were crushed. Franchitti, da Matta and Brack all survived horrific crashes but their careers were essentially over. Hinchcliffe hasn't gotten behind the wheel since a wreck nearly took his life while practicing for this year's Indy 500. Aleshin will finally return to the track this week at Sonoma, a year after he was critically injured in the 2014 finale at Fontana. Conway still races but wisely refuses to compete on ovals after a huge crash at Indianapolis.
"When you have a sport where you put on helmets and firesuits, obviously it's not safe," said Hamilton, who became a car owner and radio commentator after his devastating wreck at Texas Motor Speedway in 2001. "The last time I checked, you don't see Tiger Woods putting on a helmet and a firesuit."
That said, Hamilton isn't calling for the sport to be shut down. He loves IndyCar racing too much to even consider that an option.
But it's highly doubtful that IndyCar's supposed leadership, wracked for years by dissension and poor decision-making, can figure things out.
Take the current rules package, which gives the cars excessive downforce and strips them of horsepower, leading to three- and four-wide racing at some oval tracks. Hamilton believes this is just another disaster waiting to happen.
"Right now, it's too much of a bravery test," he said. "You just go wide open around the track and it's a matter of who's the bravest and who can get the closest to each other. I don't believe in that kind of racing."
Clearly, Formula One and NASCAR have come up with packages that are much safer.
When Jules Bianchi died in July, nine months after suffering severe head injuries in a wreck at the Japanese Grand Prix, he was the first Formula One fatality since Ayrton Senna in 1994. NASCAR hasn't lost anyone since Dale Earnhardt's last-lap wreck in the 2001 Daytona 500, a jarring wake-up call that led to improved protection for the head and neck, concrete walls being cushioned with padding, and a much sturdier race car.
Wilson's death sparked calls for IndyCar to add some sort of canopy to protect the cockpit, where the driver's head is exposed to the elements. But is it even possible to reach an acceptable level of safety — especially on the oval circuits, with open-wheel missiles darting around the track at more than 200 mph?
At the very least, IndyCar should totally abandon its oval events, which are already an endangered species on the schedule. Just six of 16 races this year were held on the high-speed tracks, and it's very possible the series could have only two or three oval races next year. Not surprisingly, most of the worst wrecks over the last 20 years have occurred on ovals. A road-racing series would surely be safer than what they have now.
But what about the most famous race in the series, the Indianapolis 500, held in May on a 2.5-mile oval?
This will sound like heresy to the purists, but the Indy 500 could become an event on the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule, replacing the Brickyard 400 in late July. True, the racing in the Brickyard has been downright boring, leading to declining attendance and calls for the track to be dropped altogether. But a tedious NASCAR race would be an improvement on the carnage from this past May, when Hinchcliffe was injured and three other Indy cars flipped during practice sessions.
Such a move also would require the stock-car series to shift one of its biggest events — the Memorial Day weekend race at Charlotte, on the same day as the 500 — to a different date, a monumental change sure to ruffle the traditionalists even more.
But they'd get over it, just as they eventually got over the abandonment of long-time NASCAR tracks such as Rockingham and North Wilkesboro.
Those of us who are big IndyCar fans would get over it, too.
It's time to end a sport that has destroyed too many lives.
Paul Newberry is a national writer for The Associated Press. Write to him at pnewberry@ap.org or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963