PHILLIPS: Giving Thanks

NHRA

PHILLIPS: Giving Thanks

There is still work to be done, but racing is infinitely safer than in those days when Mario Andretti understandably wondered who among his colleagues would last the season.

David Phillips | http://www.racer.com/speedtv | Posted November 26, 2008 Pittsburgh, Pa.

Modern safety equipment has made racing a vary different game...thankfully. (LAT photo)

As far as I know, during my brief and undistinguished career as an amateur race driver, the most severe injury suffered in any event in which I competed was the broken collarbone incurred by a fellow Formula Ford 1600 competitor one chilly weekend at Pocono International Raceway in 1976. I’m not just talking about the three dozen or so regionals and nationals in which I competed from Summit Point to Nelson Ledges, Watkins Glen and the aforementioned Pocono. I’m also including the myriad of production, sports racing and formula car races on those same SCCA weekends.

For all its supposed inherent danger (admittedly few cars in any of those classes on any of those weekends topped 150mph for any length of time), one of the most surprising things about auto racing is the fact that – relatively speaking – there are few deaths and injuries.

Certainly, auto racing used to be a far more dangerous endeavor than it is today – or even when I raced. Several years after I traded in my Royale RP21 for a Tandy 100, an accident at Summit Point took the lives of two guys I used to race against. And one need only hearken to Mario Andretti reminiscing about the 1960s when he’d go to the drivers meeting at the first race of the year and wonder how many of his colleagues/competitors would still be alive for the final race of the year to appreciate the toll once exacted by our sport.

Thankfully, much, indeed just about everything, connected with auto racing safety has changed for the better over the years with fire resistant driver suits replacing polo shirts, virtually indestructible helmets replacing cloth head socks, HANS devices becoming ubiquitous and a cornucopia of advances in racecar and track safety, from bulletproof fuel cells, composite monocoques and energy-absorbing barriers to state-of-the-art rescue, trauma care and medical personnel at the race tracks themselves.

Nevertheless, there were a number of deadly racing accidents in 2008, including the one that took the life of Scott Kalitta – ghoulishly, if briefly available on YouTube – and the less sensationalized fatalities of Dino Crescentini, Ashley Cooper, Shane Hammond, John Shoemaker and, thankfully, just a few more. In the case of Kalitta, the accident prompted a thorough rethink of safety measures by the NHRA and its competitors, a sad but necessary step in what must be the endless evolution of our sport.

That said, when one considers the millions of miles run in testing, practice, qualifying and races from Austria to Zimbabwe, Formula 1 to Formula 440, Indy cars to karts, Sprint Cup to street stocks, prototypes to showroom stock, Funny car to NHRA Sportsmen, WRC to club rallies auto racing has never been safer. Think Michael McDowell at Texas, Scott Pruett at New Jersey, Marc Gené at Le Mans. All of them would most likely have suffered serious injuries – at best – in another era.

There is still work to be done, but racing is infinitely safer than in those days when Mario understandably wondered who among his colleagues would last the season. For that we can all be thankful.

David Phillips is a Senior Writer for RACER magazine. For details about the current issue, visit www.racer.com.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Phillips

Senior writer, RACER Magazine

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