Texas Indy Car Race

What a mess! Been trying to watch this race for 2 days.

What happened today?

Yep. If it took them 36 hours to dry the track before so racing tomorow at noon ?????

Also a big crash but it looked like they bother got out under there own power.

Stayed up last night waiting for the track to get dried. Amusing interviews though.

The NASCAR boys can dry a track in an hour or so.

The Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway will be restarted from Lap 72 on Aug. 27.

In reply to novaderrik: They were talking about the track build in the booth how they didn't do a good job on water runoff, making it nearly impossible to dry it effectively.

In any case really impressed with the safety crew response on the wreck. NASCAR would not be even close to that response time. Feel bad for the fans that attended.

People can complain about certain areas of Indycar that are questionable, but they have what is probably the best safety team in all of motorsports.

ncjay wrote: People can complain about certain areas of Indycar that are questionable, but they have what is probably the best safety team in all of motorsports.

I wonder whether a person could quantify the advances in trauma surgery coming from Indianapolis generally, and Dr. Trammel specifically?

And NHRA has had some pretty darn good safety stuff going on, probably for longer than the Indycar guys.

fasted58 wrote: The Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway will be restarted from Lap 72 on Aug. 27.

I had to google that to see if you were kidding. You weren't.

Trust me, That track never dries. It's horrible for weepers. TG I had to go to Denver for my real job this week for a trip that I couldn't get out of so I was spared spending all of that time trying to dry the track. The spring Nascar event took so long to dry that track. I was worn out by the end of that race when we finished up at 2:00 AM.

As for the response teams, It was a split response of the Indy travelling team and the TMS regulars. The TMS regulars are the same guys that work the nascar events at TMS. You can tell by the fire suits.

Unfortunately, with nascar the teams are only as good as the training the local teams get. We have multiple weekends a year training. In fact, we spend almost as much time training as we do actually working the races. Of course, that's also probably why we have won multiple track of the year and safety team of the year awards from both SMI and Nascar.

OK, so we dodged the bullet here, but are people still arguing against either canopy's or halo's?

I hope for a quick recovery to Newgarden. A broken clavicle isn't too bad in the circumstances but at that angle it could have been so much worse.

Yes. I don't like the looks.

Isn't F1 doing it next year? Not that I care, I've quit watching. F1 has lost something like 15% of it's global viewership in the last 18 months. And I'll bet the Halo's next year will make the decline worse.

z31maniac wrote: Yes. I don't like the looks. Isn't F1 doing it next year? Not that I care, I've quit watching. F1 has lost something like 15% of it's global viewership in the last 18 months. And I'll bet the Halo's next year will make the decline worse.

Wow.

I'll just say that I'm willing to compromise on looks for greater driver safety and leave it at that.

I'm with him ^

Hate the halo, but hate losing drivers more.

Tom_Spangler wrote:

z31maniac wrote: Yes. I don't like the looks. Isn't F1 doing it next year? Not that I care, I've quit watching. F1 has lost something like 15% of it's global viewership in the last 18 months. And I'll bet the Halo's next year will make the decline worse.

Wow. I'll just say that I'm willing to compromise on looks for greater driver safety and leave it at that.

Wow what? The current solution impedes driver visibility and looks ridiculous. Just make it a closed canopy.

Now just enclose the wheels so cars won't so easily get airborne when cars touch wheels (Alonso in Austrailia this year?) and that is a WAY MORE common occurrence than anything the Halo would prevent.

z31maniac wrote:

Tom_Spangler wrote:

z31maniac wrote: Yes. I don't like the looks. Isn't F1 doing it next year? Not that I care, I've quit watching. F1 has lost something like 15% of it's global viewership in the last 18 months. And I'll bet the Halo's next year will make the decline worse.

Wow. I'll just say that I'm willing to compromise on looks for greater driver safety and leave it at that.

Wow what? The current solution impedes driver visibility and looks ridiculous. Just make it a closed canopy. Now just enclose the wheels so cars won't so easily get airborne when cars touch wheels (Alonso in Austrailia this year?) and that is a WAY MORE common occurrence than anything the Halo would prevent.

OK. Your earlier post made it sound like you didn't want any added safety stuff that would detract from the looks.

We are on the same page for the most part. But I honestly don't care if it's a halo or a canopy. Whatever works best.

Tom_Spangler wrote: OK. Your earlier post made it sound like you didn't want any added safety stuff that would detract from the looks. We are on the same page for the most part. But I honestly don't care if it's a halo or a canopy. Whatever works best.

I'm actually being a bit of shiny happy person.

As I mentioned, touching wheels and going airborne is a much larger problem in open wheel cars, happens much more often, heck Alonso again in Spa a few years back when he was nearly creamed after Grosjean incident.

But no one is calling on the cars to start running enclosed fenders even though it would clean up the aero and make the cars safer.

So why isn't anyone pushing for that? Enclose the cockpits and the fenders for safety and we just have more of the same DP/ALMS/Etc type race cars.

That is boring to me.

z31maniac wrote:

Tom_Spangler wrote: OK. Your earlier post made it sound like you didn't want any added safety stuff that would detract from the looks. We are on the same page for the most part. But I honestly don't care if it's a halo or a canopy. Whatever works best.

I'm actually being a bit of shiny happy person. As I mentioned, touching wheels and going airborne is a much larger problem in open wheel cars, happens much more often, heck Alonso again in Spa a few years back when he was nearly creamed after Grosjean incident. But no one is calling on the cars to start running enclosed fenders even though it would clean up the aero and make the cars safer. So why isn't anyone pushing for that? Enclose the cockpits and the fenders for safety and we just have more of the same DP/ALMS/Etc type race cars. That is boring to me.

Since you don't watch F1 anymore, why do you care?

I don't like the halo either, but would like someone to find a way for us to still see the driver & add some protection for them too. I had a greater appetite for drivers' risk, prior to being at Pocono last August and don't mind sacrificing a small amount of my viewing enjoyment if it can greatly reduce the odds of people dying while providing my entertainment.

The last two pro races I've been to have had dramatically unfortunate outcomes for several of the participants (Indycar at Pocono, PWC at LRP).

1. Once the flag drops it doesn't matter what the cars look like, it’s the racing that matters
2. F1 has not made a final decision on Halo's yet. There is also the visor and canopy options open, no intro date yet.
3. While I want increased driver protection even I admit that I wouldn't want some unintended consequences of halo's or canopy’s to lead to other issues. More work is needed by the FIA and Indy car / USAC to make sure we don’t create other issues.
4. I think the argument about enclosing the wheels is purely facetious. There are plenty of instances where LMP1, P2, DP and GT cars are going airborne, or at least being flipped up and over in IMSA and ESC/WEC etc.
5. I personally think the current DW12 in superspeedway trim is the best looking open wheel cars out there. They also do a great job of trying to prevent locked wheels with the pontoons behind the rear wheels and the underfloor and bargeboards between the wheels and the side pods to prevent interlocking.

Racing has seen several quantum leaps in safety over the decades. I think it's time for one more with open wheel/cockpit cars. That pic I posted gives me the willies look at the roll hoop and his head riding along the safer barrier, if he'd carried on a bit further and/or higher before the car departed the barrier his head would have hit the raised portion of the barrier just in front of him. Imagine what would have happened then, actually I'd rather not.

etifosi wrote: The last two pro races I've been to have had dramatically unfortunate outcomes for several of the participants (Indycar at Pocono, PWC at LRP).

Dude, I'm sorry for you, that sucks.

BTW any update on Andrew Palmer? have I missed news?

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

I've found zero info on Andrew Palmer.

etifosi wrote: In reply to Adrian_Thompson: I've found zero info on Andrew Palmer.

Ditto. In the karting community, there's a current #PRAYFORPALMER thing going around, but I've found nothing about his current condition.

-Rob

Newgarden taking that hit from Daly possibly saved Daly's life, or a horrible leg mangling. Ever seen the Gordon Smiley crash at Indy in 1982? This incident started out virtually identically to that one; sudden oversteer that reached nearly 45 degrees rear slip angle, counter steer into it, rear end suddenly grips and the car starts 4 gee turn headlong into the wall. By my reckoning, Daly owes Newgarden a case of adult beverage of his choice

I think Hinchcliff will set some kind of record for length of time leading a race...June 12 til Aug 27...