Giaffone's shunt

[BSchneiderFan]

Well, ANOTHER driver is sidelined with serious injuries after crashing an IRL car. Is this merely an inevitable corollary of oval racing, or should the IRL look very carefully at their safety record? I don't remember this level of injury in CART, even when they had plenty of oval races.

[MichaelH]

at least no-one's been seriously hurt. In CART, Jeff Krosnoff was killed in 1996 at Toronto, Gonzalo Rodriguez in 1999 at Laguna Seca and Greg Moore in the same year at Fontana. Most recently, Alex Zanardi lost both legs at the Lauzitzring in 2001 and Adrian Fernandez broke his neck at Surfers' 2002.

The only IRL fatality or really serious injury I remember was a driver at Indy in 1996 who was killed. The IRL's record aint that bad.

[BSchneiderFan]

True, no-one's been killed, but there have been a LOT of medium-to-serious accidents.

[BootsOntheSide]

I think the only permenant injury in IRL since 1996 was to Sam Schmidt, but there've been a lot of broken backs, several broken legs and a few head injuries. Fernandez was lucky in CART last year to have 2 big crashes and not suffer permenant injury in either.

[gttouring]

peopl2 get hurt at speeds like these cars can get to.
and i might add, walls are the problem, every one has been hurt because of walls. with out them accidents are no less serioes but there are less of them
Zanardi would still gotten clipped (no pun)Fernandez would've still been run over at Surfer's
but barring these the accident list would be like F1
only a few rare instances...

[marcus]

saldy guys there has been a fatality.

Scott brayton died after crashing at Indy in 96 i think it was.

there have been some terrible injuries for sure such as Sam Schmidt,Davey hamilton Elisio Salazar had some nasty injuries and of course there is more.

but compare it to the other almost all oval series of nascar and their record is fairly good.


it doesnt matter safety should always be looked at no matter what , i dont care if no one gets seriously hurt or killed in 25 years , safety should always be looked to improve.

[racer69]

Worth remembering that the 1996 IRL series was run using 1995 spec cars(ie..CART cars)

Originally posted by gttouring
peopl2 get hurt at speeds like these cars can get to.
and i might add, walls are the problem,

So you want oval tracks to get rid of walls? They are addressing this with the safer barriers.

[oily oaf]

Without wishing to sound ghoulish it is the risky aspect of oval racing and the gladiatorial atmosphere which it provides that (for me) gives it the edge over all other forms of motorsport. Of course I dont want to see drivers hurt noone does but if you make motorsport too safe and sanitised you detract fro the very thing that makes it so compelling, witness F1 zzzzzzzzz. Some of u out there my throw up your hands in horror at wot I'm saying but if you really analyze your reasons for your love of the sport I think u may find that the risk factor is among them. To illustrate the point if motorsport were made 100% safe, I wonder how many fans would turn away and give their allegiance to something more exciting, quite a few I would suggest. I'm sorry if this viewpoint upsets anyone but it's just my opinion. I race bangers myself and if u take out the element of danger from that I'd walk away tomorrow and take up extreme ironing or something similar

[racefanatic]

You're right oily oaf, lots of the fans do feel this way. Personally, I like too many of the drivers to ever want to see a crash. I think that maybe the fans who are just getting to like the sport seem to want to see the crashes more because if you don't either love cars or have someone to cheer for, racing would be boring to most people.

By the way, Scott Brayton died in a crash in a practice. I can't remember exactly when, but it was after he had won the pole for the second year in a row.

[marcus]

1996 Scott died , i mentioned it in my post above

[climb]

Gil de Ferran seemed seriously injured at Phoenix this year ...

[gttouring]

well full size slot cars can be made to make racing safe.
and slot tracks- or give everyone a 2 hp briggs and straton motor...
everything worth having and doing has some risk involved, in Racing it is more obvious.
and I do applaud the soft wall at indy that seemed to work real well, will a 3400lb stock car hold up to it? I can't rmemeber one hitting a barrier..except the old styrofoam blocks they used to use in places

[rustyfan]

Kurt Busch slammed into the SAFER barrier during the Brickyard 400 last year after getting a tap from Jimmy Spencer, and from what I can remember the barrier held up well.