OT: Racing 2011 (Spoiler Alert)

[EZSnappin]

Rest In Peace.

[XXXIV]

Rest In Peace.

Shocking.

Sad.


R.I.P. Dan Wheldon.

[Dave]

F*ck

F*ck

F*ck

F*ck

[toonarmy]

What happened to the protocol of not showing a ton of super slow-mo replays of a driver dying in a crash if it is known he has died? ABC waited until after the announcement that Dan had died before pulling out half a dozen different angles and showing them in super slow-mo. They showed a few angles after the crash, but pulled out the most graphic replays to show right after the announcement. f*** you ABC! You bunch of classless pukes.

[Rodster]

RIP Dan.

So much strides have been made to make racing safer and motorsports is much safer today than it was back when Senna and Earnhardt died. This makes it even more painful when it happens with all the safety improvements.

[Gurantsu]

This is just a sad sad day. Dan was getting everything back on track; second Indy 500 win, testing the new car, some stints as a commentator, two kids... just to have it a gone in a second. The reactions of TK and Dario really hit me.

Don't know why this one is getting to me more than any of the other drivers deaths in my lifetime, maybe for a personal reason, but nonetheless it is.

Thoughts are with his family.

[toonarmy]

Yeah, it's really crazy that Dan was doing a ton of work in testing the new safer car for 2012. Maybe they will do something to honor Dan in terms of naming the new car.

It's sad when any racer dies due to a crash, but in the case of Wheldon I think it hits so hard because he was a very prominent driver who won a championship and the Indy 500 twice, and seemed like such a nice person.

[toonarmy]

One thing I should add is that I think a fellow poster here probably knew Wheldon to some degree while doing work for the IMS. Thoughts should also go out to pk500 and his co-workers. It seems like the IMS and IndyCar workers are fairly close with the drivers and teams, so I'm sure they are gutted by Wheldon's passing.

[GB_Simo]

One thing I should add is that I think a fellow poster here probably knew Wheldon to some degree while doing work for the IMS. Thoughts should also go out to pk500 and his co-workers. It seems like the IMS and IndyCar workers are fairly close with the drivers and teams, so I'm sure they are gutted by Wheldon's passing.

Seconded.

Thoughts go out to all who knew him. If I still have tears in my eyes, I cannot begin to imagine what those close to him must be feeling.

[Gurantsu]

True. Thoughts are with pk and the whole Indycar family also.

One thing I should add is that I think a fellow poster here probably knew Wheldon to some degree while doing work for the IMS. Thoughts should also go out to pk500 and his co-workers. It seems like the IMS and IndyCar workers are fairly close with the drivers and teams, so I'm sure they are gutted by Wheldon's passing.

[XXXIV]

True. Thoughts are with pk and the whole Indycar family also.

Yes they are. I think for all of us.

[pk500]

No words can describe the hole in my soul, boys.

But I only met and worked with Dan a few times, and he was a good dude who lived every day to the max. Please think primarily of Neckthai, who knew Dan well and worked with him very often.

Thanks, fellas. A brutal day.

[Macca00]

True. Thoughts are with pk and the whole Indycar family also.

Indeed. Sad day.

[F308GTB]

I am glad I didn't even know this race was on. I would have'hated to witnessed the crash. Thoughts to the family.

[dbdynsty25]

What do you race fans think of Jimmy Johnson coming out and saying that the open wheel cars shouldn't be running on ovals?

[DChaps]

I have not even seen Johnson's full quote yet, but I would say that there are definitely certain ovals that they should consider not racing at. You have never seen Indycars racing at Daytona or Talladega for a reason. To be honest, I don't think Nascar should be racing there either in their current restrictor plate format. Of course Nascar had two deaths at New Hampshire back before Earnhardt died and they still race there, although I believe changes were made to the track.

Maybe it is time to eliminate the really high banked ovals like Texas and Las Vegas where they can go flat out and three wide. Just leaves absolutely no room for error. On the other hand, it still all comes down to racing being dangerous and sometimes its luck and what the car does on impact. In F1, Mark Weber was airborne and came down upside down at Valencia in 2010 and walked away but could have ended up far worse. Jacques Villeneuve was launched into the catch fencing Come to think of it, I think Webber also flipped not once, but two different times at LeMans in 1999 in a Mercedes CLR. Jacques Villeneuve was launched into the catch fencing at Australia and workers were killed. Jimmie Johnson walked away from an unbeliveable impact in a Busch race at Watkins Glen that could also just have easily been worse. When cars get airborne, there is no telling what can happen. Of course in an open wheel car, the consequences can only be much worse. Gotta figure out a way to keep them from getting airborne. As a fan, I have no problem doing whatever is necessary to make it safer, but it will never be 100% safe, outside of just cancelling all racing.

[GB_Simo]

What do you race fans think of Jimmy Johnson coming out and saying that the open wheel cars shouldn't be running on ovals?

It's a sweeping generalisation made at a time when a rational judgement isn't particularly easy to make, even if it's probably not without merit.

I wouldn't feel especially nervous about an IndyCar race at, say, Milwaukee, New Hampshire or Indianapolis, ovals which allow for some field spread and highlight differences in car and driver performance. It's never going to be completely safe and it's still incredibly fast, but the laps they turn at Indy these days have an average speed 15 mph lower than the speeds seen 15 or so years ago, in cars which are much safer and on a track which doesn't promote the kind of bunching seen yesterday. I don't think we're getting into the boundaries of unacceptable risk in that instance.

There were various factors at play yesterday - the sheer number of cars on track and some questionable driving standards in the early going shouldn't be discounted. Ultimately, when you have 34 cars all bunched up and one driver in the middle of the pack makes a mistake, there's very little that driver can do to avoid taking a good number of other racers with him, while there's just not enough real estate available for everyone behind him to find a route through.

In saying that, the Las Vegas track isn't a taxing one for an IndyCar or its driver and when everyone's limit of performance is in roughly the same place, you'll get bunching no matter what field size you run. Perhaps you could argue, though, that by controlling the size of the field, you'd stand a greater chance of avoiding an accident with anything like the kind of scale we saw on Sunday. The fewer cars are involved, the lower the chance of having cars launching over each other on a blocked track.

I'm thinking out loud there, rather than stating an opinion, but hopefully you can see my point. It's not as simple as saying all ovals are too dangerous for an IndyCar, or even that it's automatically impossible to hold a race at somewhere like Vegas without introducing unacceptable risk. You'd need to look into it more deeply than Johnson has before you could reach that conclusion definitively, but perhaps now isn't the time to be doing that.

[toonarmy]

Jimmie Johnson knew Wheldon and stated that he has friends driving in the series. I think his comments are more of a knee-jerk reaction after a tragedy than any thought-out criticism of racing on ovals. As far as taking his comments at face value, Jimmie has been involved in some pretty hairy accidents on both ovals and road courses. Oval racing is a big part of the IndyCar series and are what make it IMO the most exciting car racing series in the world. Jimmie is simply wrong in saying that IndyCar needs to abandon ovals. What IndyCar needs to do is rethink racing at places such as Texas and Vegas. They also need to never again put 34 cars on a 1.5 track with high banking. There was apprehension by the drivers going into the Vegas race, which should have raised a red flag. You could tell in the first 10 laps that something bad was bound to happen since you had 34 ultra-competitive drivers driving flatout and going three-wide. Mix in the fact you had some people out there with limited experience this year, and you had a recipe for some nasty stuff. Having said that, IndyCar racing is risky at any venue and tragedy can occur at any time. I truly hope the new cars next year add an increased layer of safety. The cars they have been racing are pretty doggone safe and accidents that look bad usually turn out with nobody getting seriously hurt, so it was shocking to IndyCar fans to see someone actually die given all the safety improvements. IndyCar has some serious work to do in the offseason in making the series safer, while at the same time continuing to provide its trademark wheel-to-wheel racing. Sunday's tragedy sure as heck won't make it any easier to popularize a struggling series. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that brighter days lie ahead for IndyCar.

[Rodster]

Adding to what Toon said they should not only drop the field count but also drop the speed down several notches on those short ovals with high banking.

[Rodster]

File this under the i'll believe it when I see it.

Formula 1 set to add second US race on streets of New Jersey from 2013

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/95596

"Formula 1 is set to have two grands prix in the United States from 2013, with plans for a race around the streets of New Jersey expected to be confirmed as early as next week."

[toonarmy]

File this under the i'll believe it when I see it.

Formula 1 set to add second US race on streets of New Jersey from 2013

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/95596

"Formula 1 is set to have two grands prix in the United States from 2013, with plans for a race around the streets of New Jersey expected to be confirmed as early as next week."

Won't be any red tape and bureaucracy to wade through there, lol. Nothing like another street course with more right angle corners and uninspiring racing. Bernie finally gets his wish of a race in the NYC market. At this rate of adding races I won't be shocked to see Race for the Chase in F1 at some point.

[F308GTB]

Just wish Bernie wasn't such a greedy bastard so that the dispute with Indy never took place. Was playing the Formula GT time trail in GT5 last night and again thinking what a great course it is from the driving and car setup perspective. And what other F1 course is as fan friendly as Indy with the ability to see the entire circuit from the stands?

So what are the odds of Austin making it next year let alone NJ in 2013? My understanding is Austin still hasn't granted building permits for stands and such.

[GB_Simo]

Fellas, I know your Moto GP coverage is on tape delay and so I'm not altogether sure if this is the right move, but I've decided to post and let you make up your own minds about whether you want to watch any coverage that might be shown.




RIP Marco Simoncelli. A proper racer, electrifying to watch and taken far, far too soon.

[Rodster]

I just saw it and wow what a crash. His helmet came off on impact from Edwards and Rossi's bikes. He was face down, terrifying crash.

RIP Marco

[EZSnappin]

Rest In Peace, Marco. Tough, tough week.