Why Castroneves’ car flipped over
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| Rest assured that it was not that small wicker you see here in this photo that caused Helio to go airborne, but instead the air when it hit the Butt Bumpers behind the rear wheels. The Butt Bumpers act like big sails. |
Before Thursday practice began at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 99th Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, race No. 6 in the Verizon IndyCar Series season and arguably the most important of the bunch, Chevrolet teams were told to remove the center wicker bill that runs the length of each car’s nose.
After some computational fluid dynamics (CFD) studies, Chevrolet felt the wicker might have been a partial contributor to Helio Castroneves’ flight on Wednesday afternoon that left his car unable to perform but, thankfully, not its driver, who drove a backup later in the day and placing 15th with only 12 laps in the books.
As team co-owner Dennis Reinbold (No. 24 Chevrolet driven by Townsend Bell) explained to me, when the car initially got sideways the wicker might have caused the No. 3 to lift at the rear, thereby causing Castroneves to get airborne. According to Chris Berube, Chevrolet motorsports manager, the manufacturer asked the teams to remove it just to make ascertain – in the real world – that this won't happen again?
Berube said they wanted to get the cars back to as-homologated status. Honda teams have not been advised to follow suit at this time. Motorsport.com
05/14/15
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| The rear of the Chevy aero kit showing the Butt Bumpers behind the rear wheel that cause tremendous lift if the car turns around and goes backwards, which it was not designed to do |
Make no mistake about it – IndyCars do fly and the question remains will a car eventually fly clear over the fence and into the grandstands.
Blame the idiotic Butt Bumpers for the reason Helio Castroneves flipped over yesterday at Indy. Once Helio's car turned around and went backward at 200 MPH the air hit the hideous Butt Bumpers behind the rear wheels (where the #3 is painted).
Once the air hit those needless, hideous looking appendices behind the rear wheels, and especially where the #3 is painted on the sloped surface, the lift created by the air flowing through the Butt Bumpers and under the car caused a tremendous amount of lift and Helio had takeoff.
The Butt Bumpers are there so IndyCar drivers can play bumper cars and not get tire-to-tire contact.