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IndyCar
INDYCAR: Tensions, Concerns Present At Texas
The division between drivers and the track on safety remains, and I don’t expect it to ease until the race is over and, hopefully, the fences go unused.
Texas' fence layout is the biggest topic of concern among the drivers this weekend. (Photo: LAT)
Late last year, in the wake of Dan Wheldon’s death at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway during IndyCar’s season finale, the message was clear.
The suffering varied from driver to driver. Some were injured physically, many were scarred emotionally, and they all left the track holding firm to the ideal that they would never strap in to participate in a race like the one that had just taken place.
Of the many concerns that were stated, 1.5-mile “NASCAR” tracks weren’t designed for the high-stakes, close-quarters open-wheel racing the series provided. The exposed fence poles used at Las Vegas and Texas were too dangerous, and the cars, which raced in pack-like clusters, had to be changed to keep drivers from racing nose to tail in an endless 230 mile-per-hour swarm.
The call to action for the series was twofold. The new-for-2012 Dallara DW12 chassis already had rear wheel guards and anti-interlocking bodywork added to reduce the likelihood of cars launching over one another, but breaking up pack racing would take extensive track testing to cure the problem.
The series, through its INDYCAR sanctioning body, also needed to find a solution on its own, or with outside input, to safeguard its drivers from taking direct hits from exposed fence poles.
The most popular suggestion was one of avoidance--for the series to strike all of the remaining 1.5-milers from its 2012 calendar, and by December, drivers were under the impression that the three 1.5-milers from 2011—Kentucky, Las Vegas and Texas--would be gone for good.
To the surprise of many within the paddock, Texas was confirmed by the series, and concerns about safety continued to grow as the race date grew closer and closer.
At the behest of the drivers, INDYCAR approached Texas earlier in the year to ask for permission to place a temporary fence in front of its exposed steel poles and was turned down, which has only widened the gap between what drivers perceived as a safe and conducive environment to race Indy cars.
Now, with opening practice upon us, the majority of the drivers are either tense, nervous, or both (barring one or two who feel bullish about IndyCar’s 1.5-mile swansong) because INDYCAR has conducted just one solid day of pack racing testing at the track, and the fence poles are still exposed.
Drivers met with Will Phillips, INDYCAR’s VP of Technology, during the Detroit round last weekend to express major concerns about the series’ lack of progress on a suitable aero configuration for Texas, citing the need to reduce downforce after the Indy 500 generated significant car clusters.
INDYCAR agreed with the drivers’ plea, and has mandated a number of changes that will have the field running at minimal downforce levels. Some drivers expect the changes to help reduce pack racing, while others are less than complementary about the last-minute, un-tested tweaks.
The end results is that drivers, owners, engineers and even the series won’t know if the changes will or won’t work until cars take to the track, which seems to go against everything that was promised after Las Vegas.
“We’re going back to the track with the same formula, maybe minus 300 pounds of downforce,” said one driver who asked to remain nameless. “There was a feeling of ‘I can’t believe we’re about to do this’ at Las Vegas, and here we are doing it again.”
Whether it’s pack racing or exposed fence poles, emotions are running high within the driver ranks, and despite a few comments on both topics making it into the press, drivers have been unified for the most part on keeping their concerns private, or funneling them directly to the series.
With the drivers unwilling to voice their concerns in print, Davey Hamilton, the driver-turned-owner who came to personify the damage a steel pole can inflict on an open-wheel car—and the human body—stepped forward to speak on their behalf about the pole layout.
TMS President Eddie Gossage also shared plenty of time with SPEED.com to offer his views from the other side of the proverbial fence.
“There is a reason to be concerned,” said Hamilton, co-owner of Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports, which fields the No. 77 Honda-powered car for rookie driver Simon Pagenaud. “Here’s the biggest thing I have a problem with. I put a helmet on, a firesuit on, and I know it’s dangerous. But, we all look for guys—from Dallara, from HANS, from IMPACT, from the league—to make safety better. You never hear them say things are good enough. You always hear them say they are looking for ways to make thing better. And they don’t stop, at all. Texas, and the SMI tracks, won’t give any reason why they won’t make any changes to their fences, and that is so wrong. It’s so anti-progress.”
Hamilton learned firsthand about what it felt like to hit an exposed pole in 2001 when he crashed at Turn 2 at Texas while driving in the Indy Racing League for his current partner, Sam Schmidt. As the first driver on the scene after Jeret Schroeder blew an engine at the apex of the first two corners, Hamilton became a passenger as his car his Schroeder’s oil and rode over the back of his car, launching the No. 99 car into the air.
Hamilton’s Dallara chassis then met the steel pole at almost 200 mph, ripping away the tub from just blow his thighs and leaving his feet and ankles exposed. He’d spent the next few years rehabilitating his lower extremities, and would make a triumphant return to the IndyCar Series, but Hamilton’s days as a full-time driver ended at Texas.
Hamilton’s sensitivities notwithstanding, it’s not entirely fair to focus the entire open-wheel/oval fence progress debate on TMS, knowing that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway just hosted the 96th running of the Indy 500 without any advancement to its fences. The same will also be true at Milwaukee, Iowa and Fontana.
Some have called for the addition of ballistic plastic in front of the fences and poles, while others have suggested a new boom-style of fence that has the poles father back from the track, but those concepts have yet to be tested or tried.
The suffering varied from driver to driver. Some were injured physically, many were scarred emotionally, and they all left the track holding firm to the ideal that they would never strap in to participate in a race like the one that had just taken place.
Of the many concerns that were stated, 1.5-mile “NASCAR” tracks weren’t designed for the high-stakes, close-quarters open-wheel racing the series provided. The exposed fence poles used at Las Vegas and Texas were too dangerous, and the cars, which raced in pack-like clusters, had to be changed to keep drivers from racing nose to tail in an endless 230 mile-per-hour swarm.
The call to action for the series was twofold. The new-for-2012 Dallara DW12 chassis already had rear wheel guards and anti-interlocking bodywork added to reduce the likelihood of cars launching over one another, but breaking up pack racing would take extensive track testing to cure the problem.
The series, through its INDYCAR sanctioning body, also needed to find a solution on its own, or with outside input, to safeguard its drivers from taking direct hits from exposed fence poles.
The most popular suggestion was one of avoidance--for the series to strike all of the remaining 1.5-milers from its 2012 calendar, and by December, drivers were under the impression that the three 1.5-milers from 2011—Kentucky, Las Vegas and Texas--would be gone for good.
To the surprise of many within the paddock, Texas was confirmed by the series, and concerns about safety continued to grow as the race date grew closer and closer.
At the behest of the drivers, INDYCAR approached Texas earlier in the year to ask for permission to place a temporary fence in front of its exposed steel poles and was turned down, which has only widened the gap between what drivers perceived as a safe and conducive environment to race Indy cars.
Now, with opening practice upon us, the majority of the drivers are either tense, nervous, or both (barring one or two who feel bullish about IndyCar’s 1.5-mile swansong) because INDYCAR has conducted just one solid day of pack racing testing at the track, and the fence poles are still exposed.
Drivers met with Will Phillips, INDYCAR’s VP of Technology, during the Detroit round last weekend to express major concerns about the series’ lack of progress on a suitable aero configuration for Texas, citing the need to reduce downforce after the Indy 500 generated significant car clusters.
INDYCAR agreed with the drivers’ plea, and has mandated a number of changes that will have the field running at minimal downforce levels. Some drivers expect the changes to help reduce pack racing, while others are less than complementary about the last-minute, un-tested tweaks.
The end results is that drivers, owners, engineers and even the series won’t know if the changes will or won’t work until cars take to the track, which seems to go against everything that was promised after Las Vegas.
“We’re going back to the track with the same formula, maybe minus 300 pounds of downforce,” said one driver who asked to remain nameless. “There was a feeling of ‘I can’t believe we’re about to do this’ at Las Vegas, and here we are doing it again.”
Whether it’s pack racing or exposed fence poles, emotions are running high within the driver ranks, and despite a few comments on both topics making it into the press, drivers have been unified for the most part on keeping their concerns private, or funneling them directly to the series.
With the drivers unwilling to voice their concerns in print, Davey Hamilton, the driver-turned-owner who came to personify the damage a steel pole can inflict on an open-wheel car—and the human body—stepped forward to speak on their behalf about the pole layout.
TMS President Eddie Gossage also shared plenty of time with SPEED.com to offer his views from the other side of the proverbial fence.
“There is a reason to be concerned,” said Hamilton, co-owner of Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports, which fields the No. 77 Honda-powered car for rookie driver Simon Pagenaud. “Here’s the biggest thing I have a problem with. I put a helmet on, a firesuit on, and I know it’s dangerous. But, we all look for guys—from Dallara, from HANS, from IMPACT, from the league—to make safety better. You never hear them say things are good enough. You always hear them say they are looking for ways to make thing better. And they don’t stop, at all. Texas, and the SMI tracks, won’t give any reason why they won’t make any changes to their fences, and that is so wrong. It’s so anti-progress.”
Hamilton learned firsthand about what it felt like to hit an exposed pole in 2001 when he crashed at Turn 2 at Texas while driving in the Indy Racing League for his current partner, Sam Schmidt. As the first driver on the scene after Jeret Schroeder blew an engine at the apex of the first two corners, Hamilton became a passenger as his car his Schroeder’s oil and rode over the back of his car, launching the No. 99 car into the air.
Hamilton’s Dallara chassis then met the steel pole at almost 200 mph, ripping away the tub from just blow his thighs and leaving his feet and ankles exposed. He’d spent the next few years rehabilitating his lower extremities, and would make a triumphant return to the IndyCar Series, but Hamilton’s days as a full-time driver ended at Texas.
Hamilton’s sensitivities notwithstanding, it’s not entirely fair to focus the entire open-wheel/oval fence progress debate on TMS, knowing that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway just hosted the 96th running of the Indy 500 without any advancement to its fences. The same will also be true at Milwaukee, Iowa and Fontana.
Some have called for the addition of ballistic plastic in front of the fences and poles, while others have suggested a new boom-style of fence that has the poles father back from the track, but those concepts have yet to be tested or tried.
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