The Indy Racing League, which should be celebrating the end of their season, is instead looking at two serious crashes. At the season finale last week in Texas, Kenny Brack was seriously injured when he was tapped and lost control of his car at 220mph. Brack suffered a broken thigh, ankles and back, and needed surgery to fuse 3 vertabrae. He is however, expected to make a full recovery. Unfortunately, during testing Wednesday at Inidinapolis, Tony Renna, who had landed what many believe could have been the biggest break of his career, teaming up with series champ Scott Dixon in a Target car, was killed when he apparently became airborne coming out of turn 3, and having his car clear a safety barrier before crashing into a catch fence. Parts of the car apparently landed in a grandstand walkway. Several drivers have become airborne at Indy recently, however this is the first speedway fataility since 1996. Technology has made the cars faster, but it appears, not totally safer. You wonder what the IRL (and, to be fair, CART, which has seen it's share of disasterous accidents) will do to either check the technological advancements, or to improve safety.
Wrong. There is control in an open wheel racing car at 220 mph. There is NO control however when the IRL is racing 3 wide at 220 mph. The IRL cars have been shoddy from Day 1..... Robin Miller wrote an article for ESPN in which he pointed out the amount of injuries in IRL cars compared to CART cars from 1996 till present. More injuries were received in the shoddy IRL cars then their superior CART counterparts. Tony George (SATAN) wanted a low cost racing series he could control. When you are paying $500, 000 for an open wheel tub that is supposed to be "safe" at 220 mph, something has to give. It is no coincidence that the IRL has had 3 AIRBORNE incidents this year. Mario Andretti at Indy, Kenny Brack at Texas, and now Tony Renna at Indy. The IRL cars are not safe. The IRL series is not safe. Tony George should not feel safe! Yes CART has had 3 unforunate deaths in the past few years, however measures were taken after each incident to make sure they were never repeated. CART has alway taken a pro-active stance when it comes to drivers saftey, which is paramount. The IRL only cares about the show.... the show of 3 wide cars going round circles at 220 pmh. Enjoy......
Here's the Miller article on ESPN: http://espn.go.com/rpm/irl/2003/1013/1637489.html He had another one today (http://espn.go.com/rpm/irl/2003/1013/1637489.html), which made an even bigger point, I think. Renna's car apparently (There is no video on this, so we'll never be sure), smashed into a safety fence, throwing pieces into what would be, on a raceday, a grandstand walkway. With all the airborne cars for the IRL, if one were to ever go into the stands during a race, the results could be disasterous to the series, and the speedway.
The measures CART made was cutting down on their ovals. Let's not forget what happend to Zanardi in a CART Car. We'll see how safe they are in California in a few weeks. That being said, I don't watch racing to see accidents and I hope CART has a good safe race and proves, that they are superior to IRL Cars. I hate Robin Miller by the way.
CART is superior to the ba$tardly IRL in every way, shape, and form. It will be interesting to compare the IRL Fontana attendance to the CART Fontana attendance....