Paul Tracy talks about being in middle of Wheldon accident
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| Tracy's helmet from Las Vegas. The black mark on the visor is from Pippa Mann's tire as she flew over his car. Tracy said her car broke part of his steering wheel as well. And the new IndyCar exposes the driver's head more that the existing car – a major design flaw by Dallara. The driver must duck for flying wheels, pieces of suspension from another car, and catch fence poles |
Paul Tracy was on TSN 990 radio in Montreal Friday and said, he is still in shock about what happened to Dan Wheldon. His wife and mother want to quit as he does not need the money. He said he was lucky to have walked away since Pippa Mann came across his cockpit, broke the steering wheel he was holding on to and glanced off his helmet.
He feels the new car is all wrong. A little carbon fire at the back won't prevent cars flying when you have large impacts. He said nobody has listened to the drivers complaints about flying cars in 8 years and the new car wasn’t designed with any input from the drivers as far as he knew. What struck him when he sat in the new car his head and neck were far more exposed then the current car and had he been in one in Vegas he would probably be dead because Mann's car would have ripped his head off. We noted this major design flaw in this article titled Houston (IndyCar) We have a Problem, hence why we immediately called for a complete redesign of the car. In lieu of that we suggested an F16 Fighter Jet canopy be placed on top of the cockpit.
10/20/11 In this Sportsnet 590 radio interview (MP3 File – takes time before audio starts) Paul Tracy tells the gruesome details about what it was like to be in the middle of the big accident at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that took the life of Dan Wheldon. He talks about what he saw on the track and afterward in the medical center. Fan590.com