Justin Wilson injured at Indycar Pocono race

Late in the Indycar race at Pocono today, Sage Karam spun while leading and hit the wall. His nosecone flew up in the air and Justin Wilson's car hit it. It appeared to hit his helmet, then it flew way up in the air. Wilson then hit the inside wall. He's been airlifted to a hospital, and right now (about 10 minutes after the race) there's zero information about his condition, which is never a good sign.

I swear, I'm starting to doubt the wisdom of even running open wheel cars on big ovals like this.

F1 driver caught a spring (?) To the helmet couple years ago? Wrong place wrong time

TRoglodyte wrote: F1 driver caught a spring (?) To the helmet couple years ago? Wrong place wrong time

Yeah, Felipe Massa. For sure it takes a very unlucky bounce for someone to be injured like this, but it does happen.

Justin raced with us at Sebring this year and is an incredibly kind, caring, professional. I would like to ask everyone to have him and his family in your thoughts and prayers in the near future. Justin, we're pulling for a full and complete recovery for ya Bud.

I was out of the room when it happened and there were no replays. Never good.

Just got back from Pocono.

Buzz killed due to JM's crash. Didn't see the replay at the track, thought I heard announcer say debris hit his suspension, causing crash. No word on his condition but saw life flight take off. Reading that he was unresponsive & feel gutted 'cuz it was the best day of the year for me & looks to be worst for Justin.

• undeniably a true sportsman/racer/gentleman.

Please be okay.

Well, he's alive, at least:

Indycar.com said: LONG POND, Pa. (August 23, 2015) – INDYCAR driver Justin Wilson suffered a severe head injury during today’s event at Pocono Raceway. Wilson is currently in a coma and in critical condition while undergoing further evaluation at Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown, Pa. INDYCAR sends its thoughts and prayers to Justin, his family, and Andretti Autosport during this difficult time. Additional updates to Wilson’s condition will be released when available.

Shux,

Just did a quick google. Severe head injury and coma.

I was a little late. Already posted.

Just saw the replay and the angular momentum change of the piece of debris is unbelievable.

I haven't received any good news this evening about the situation. praying for a miracle as this point as his family will be getting into PA within the next 48 hours.

according to Paul Tracy the nose cone is very heavy …

comparisons to Massa's crash … Massa was traveling ~ 150 - 160 mph, when he hit a small spring (weight ? in the oz. maybe a pound)

Indy cars lapping at Michigan at 220+ … so figure he was going .. what ?? 190 ? and the nose cone is several/many pounds (double digits for sure)

all we can do now is sit back and pray

edit: found on another forum … reports of the nose cone being 35+ lbs

Watched it happen and it was awful. Thoughts are with him. Massa often gets mentioned but is a great example of how an athelete can come back from something like this.

Yes, The nose assembly is heavy for an indy car part and there is a solid center of mass on the middle of it. I've had to pick them up a few times.

My prayers are with Justin and his family. He will have a long road to recovery and I pray for the best.

Damn, that was a hard hit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7EFP_wr2fo

Prayers to Justin and family.

Wow. That has to be the most severe debris-to-helmet impact since the infamous South Africa F1 incident involving a fire extinguisher.

I don't think the safety regs can look the other way regarding the inherent dangers of open-cockpit cars much longer. In the old days it wasn't a big problem in relative terms, considering that drivers were sitting in flimsy wheeled chemical bombs, but now it's a hole in the safety of otherwise very safe cars - a hole big enough to drive a spring, nosecone, or construction vehicle through.

The only reasons for keeping open cockpits around are tradition and advertising anyway. They're bad for performance.

GameboyRMH wrote: Wow. That has to be the most severe debris-to-helmet impact since the infamous South Africa F1 incident involving a fire extinguisher. I don't think the safety regs can look the other way regarding the inherent dangers of open-cockpit cars much longer. In the old days it wasn't a big problem in relative terms, considering that drivers were sitting in flimsy wheeled chemical bombs, but now it's a hole in the safety of otherwise very safe cars - a hole big enough to drive a spring, nosecone, or construction vehicle through. The only reasons for keeping open cockpits around are tradition and advertising anyway. They're bad for performance.

And escapability. Imagine the thing being jammed when the car is on fire....

Tom_Spangler wrote: And escapability. Imagine the thing being jammed when the car is on fire....

that was mentioned yesterday, too.

But that seems to ignore all of the closed sports car racing that has been going on for, well, ever. Quite a few closed prototypes were at Le Mans for many seasons without incident.

I'm ok with open car racing, but some of the reasons not to don't make sense. This being the most glaring one.

This is a terrible incident. In a sport where big boys (and ladies) wear their big boy pants and race at speeds where the open cockpit is just one of the potential ways to be hurt or killed. It's not frequently the source of injury as much as hitting walls seems to be. I mean... we are going back to Massa as our example afterall. When was that? 6 years ago. How did Hinchcliffe damn near bleed out? That was a horrific incident involving debris but it didn't come in the open top. Dan Wheldon died from either debris or barrel rolling at 220mph 50ft off the cround. Maybe we should have a war on debris or going fast rather than open cars. I mean... motorcycles are open cockpit, travel at insane speeds and shed heavy debris like a front wheel or entire flying chassis occasionally when things go wrong.

Do we call for an end to that madness even though MotoGP is by far the best racing to be seen anywhere this side of BTCC?

Knee-jerk safety concerns in sports where danger is so prevalent and easy to come by just seems a little ... pointless. Everyone could drive tin tops if they wanted to.

Here is to hoping for a full recovery for Justin. Thoughts for his family as well.

Everyone seems to jump to a fully enclosed canopy - why not a streamlined clear "windscreen" ahead of the steering wheel to deflect debris, maintaining open cockpit accessibility? Would solve most of the debris danger without compromising exit/extraction.

Prayers are with Justin, one of the true good guys.

When my son was 6, I took him to an IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio. We waited 90 minutes in line to get driver autographs. All the drivers got up and left promptly at 5pm with about 50 people still in line...EXCEPT Justin Wilson, who stuck around and hurriedly signed things for the last folks before he took off. A class act.

I can't get over all the odd coincidences that had line up in order for this to happen to him. Hell, even his height worked against him as his head sticks up several inches higher than, say, Marco Andretti or Tristan Vautier. Praying that he somehow gets out of this OK.

Jim Pettengill wrote: Everyone seems to jump to a fully enclosed canopy - why not a streamlined clear "windscreen" ahead of the steering wheel to deflect debris, maintaining open cockpit accessibility? Would solve most of the debris danger without compromising exit/extraction.

Yeah, that would make sense, IMO.

In related news, Tony Stewart sent his plane to pick up Wilson's family and get them to PA: http://www.sbnation.com/nascar/2015/8/24/9197147/tony-stewart-plane-justin-wilson-family

This pains me, he had even voiced his concerns publicly, come up with ideas for Indy and directly references Pocono. I'm gutted.

G. P. Snorklewacker wrote: Knee-jerk safety concerns in sports where danger is so prevalent and easy to come by just seems a little ... pointless. Everyone could drive tin tops if they wanted to. Here is to hoping for a full recovery for Justin. Thoughts for his family as well.

With respect to Justin and his family- as he drove for US (as in F) so I'm a big fan of his.

My actual knee jerk safety reaction- why are these cars breaking up in such large chunks? For many years, the organizers and TV made a big deal of the cars breaking into tiny little pieces as they dissipated a lot of energy.

Specifically, this accident really confuses me- it was the nose cone. How in the world does a nose in crash result in the nose coming off in one piece like that??? Seems like that thing should have shattered into small bits. Much like when earlier in the race, Carpenter came down on someone, and they touched- so the pod behind the rear wheel came off as one big part. Thankfully, that landed in the catch fence.

This year has been really odd- in terms of stuff coming off the car- the rules are that sub sections are to be of min-weight- which was equal to last year's wing packages. So all of the added winglets don't add weight- which means they are light and fragile. Many wiglet sections broke off of cars this year- as a single part.

Many of the other heavy parts are regulated- wheels, suspension, etc- to have tethers and not go anywhere. So why are the body parts coming a part in such large chunks and not tethered to the car?!?!

Tom_Spangler wrote:

GameboyRMH wrote: Wow. That has to be the most severe debris-to-helmet impact since the infamous South Africa F1 incident involving a fire extinguisher. I don't think the safety regs can look the other way regarding the inherent dangers of open-cockpit cars much longer. In the old days it wasn't a big problem in relative terms, considering that drivers were sitting in flimsy wheeled chemical bombs, but now it's a hole in the safety of otherwise very safe cars - a hole big enough to drive a spring, nosecone, or construction vehicle through. The only reasons for keeping open cockpits around are tradition and advertising anyway. They're bad for performance.

And escapability. Imagine the thing being jammed when the car is on fire....

seems to me that something like the NHRA is experimenting with would be very workable … there's still some open area, but the head is protected … should be fairly easy to design something that isn't likely to be able to be jammed

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