IRL's Renna killed at Indy

there is no question motorycle racing is more dangerous than car racing...

I question the IRL for running some races on tracks which CART driver considered unsafe....

didn't the CART drivers complain about blacking out on the banking of texas world...??

 

Yep, I remember that crash. I had the same thought. Waltrip's was the worst destruction of a NASCAR that I can remember.

 

Dale Earnhardt Sr and Kenny Brack and why I love racing

Dale Sr's crash didn't "look bad" but he died instantly.The car didn't break apart and all the energy of the wreck went into his body. A crash like Brack's looked bad but the energy dispersal of the car flying apart probably saved his life. He had a broken back, thigh and both ankles were broken. He will recover to help raise the child his wife is carrying.

One thing I've learned in four years of race chaplaincy is "racin' is racin" It's all dangerous, and that's part of the attraction. I love it however, and all the guys and gals I serve love it.

Even though we just lost a road racer at Daytona and WERA lost one at CMP, we'll keep going to the track and i'm glad we do.

My theology professor spoke of a doctrine called "natural evil"......which explains why bad things happen. I prefer to call it the doctrine of s--- happens. Living life produces risks everyday. I don't stayed holed up in my house just because some fool in an 18 wheeler may hit me on Interstate 20. I get out and live. I go to the race track, I go to work, the grocery store, my daughter's band competitions. I go because I enjoy life....and that's why I LOVE RACING!!!

 

My first trip to the Indy 500 Time Trials was the day Gordon Smiley died.

 

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."
Helen Keller


"Traffic fatalities in alcohol-related crashes rose slightly from 17,400 in 2001 to 17,419 in 2002."
NHTSA document DOT HS 809 606


I'd rather get wiped out on a track than get wiped out by a drunk on the road.

Why is there a war on terror and a war on drugs and no war on DWI? DWI kills a lot more people.


For those of you paying attention, I don't want to make a connection between the first and second quotes. If you tried hard you could read it as "go ahead and drink and drive", but that ignores the fact that DWI endangers other people, so the Keller quote doesn't apply.

 

I was trying hard to grasp what you were saying. Was it that Helen Keller could have been a good race car driver, or motorcycle racer if she weren't so drunk?

Yes, so in an effort to alienate EVERYONE ELSE and not just the 90% of the people they had already, they decided to wait until the stands filled up on race day to tell everyone to go home. Mickey Mouse WOULD have done a better job than Pookeyman. They're getting beat by a shiny nosed egomaniac who is leading a circus of children in circles.

What really amazes me though, Tony George started the IRL to make things safer. Now that speeds are right back where they were, what's he doing to slow em down, or make em safer? I don't think his intent was ever to make em safe, but to get all the marbles. Well, you're about to get em, you baby. Now do something about cars flying, before you launch one into the stands when there are half a million people packed into IMS on raceday.

At least there's still F1 and Rally for semi safe racing.

 

Did he ever say he wanted to slow them? I think the intent was to save Indy car style racing. Which CART has shown it can run into the ground as well as anyone. He was trying to reduce costs by having something closer to spec cars and engines based closer to production versions. A byproduct of that would have hopefully been lower speeds and safer racing. And he wanted to get more "american" drivers involved such as Billy Boat,etc.

Any time you have open wheel cars running as close as IRL cars have been you will have incidents like Bracks. I haven't seen Renna crash so.... At the speeds they are running now even NASCAR's fly. Run an airplane wing backwards and what happens? Run a upside down wing backwards and what happens? Especially when you have ground effects involved.

 

FYI, yes he did. In the CART's hay day, the speed were appraching 260mph at Indy straights. With the lap record being right up over 240mph, I think. This was most likely achieved by Scott Brayton, who drove an V6 Buick powered Menard. That thing had some POWER. Sick.

 

sure did. thus, the obnoxiously loud NA engines. Not to mention the friggin 500 has become yet one more thing that is trying to be politically correct. Now, thanks to tony G's family day idea, the thing doesn't even sell out. I remeber the days when we'd line up for tickets, immediatly following the race, for the next year's race. It took my family 3 years of upgrading til we even got seats on the front straight.

This is back when the snake pit still existed, and the streets were filled with vendors selling "Indianapolis Fucking 500" T-shirts. Senior skip day in Indy, everyone knew you could get drunk at the track without going to jail. There was so much chaos, they'd try to stop underagers from drinking, but couldn't cite them all. After the race, people would rush in for the party. Thosands of people would pay $10 to get into the infield, just to party, and hear the sweet sound of a Turbocharged engine, and never see the track. And god fobid your car made it into the infield, and wasn't up to the standards of the rowdy mob. A buick barbeque, or maybe a few, could be seen for miles as you waited in traffic for hours, trying to get out.

what was this thread about again? sorry, I lost myself. But, ahhhhh....the memories of pre-political correctness. When just ATTENDING the race was dangerous.

 

Well didn't CART itself work to slow the cars even before TG split off? That was the idea of lower waste gate pressure to lower hp and taking away wing size at the faster tracks.

 

Sorry but I couldn't careless about this part of it. I go to the races to see the races. If I drink and carry on it is well before or after.

 

yeah, they tried to slow them. Search: Massive popoff valve debacle. During the last:Friggin Decade. That's where the split was debated. Popoffs make it slower, but all popoffs aren't created equal.

The debate was What's safe? then, what's fair? then Cheap(er) series. Then the vision became more Americans. Ovals primarily, with wheel to wheel, people close to the action, etc. Except now, you have a series where the speeds are right back where theyt were, it's attracting foreigners and the $$ (along with advantage) of some CART teams, and Tony G is about to try to snatch up some road courses that Pookey can't get signed for next year.

Soooo...was it really about safety, Tony? Little brat, born with a silver dick in his mouth, won't play well with others, won't share his toys.

IRL=

 

If you go to a big oval where you can only see a dozen feet of track, and 240MPH blurs, you better put something in your mind to make you think it's fun. That was the fun of the 500.

OH, the MAMORIES of the 500!!! I think I'm going to cry. If you never went, you just can't describe the party. Saw a race there one year too.