Somewhere in the neighborhood of 215 mph, Dario Franchitti got a bit of a nudge from Dan Wheldon during the Firestone Indy 400 at Michigan International Speedway. What followed was one of the wildest rides IRL has seen for some time. Perhaps the wildest part is that there were no injuries. While the design strength of the cars kept everyone safe, Lady Luck player her part as well, given that Dario’s car hit AJ Foyt IV in the head.
Gary Faules says
August 7, 2007 at 6:16 amIsn’t it amazing that with so much awesome safety requirements that are strictly enforced today that many of us can simply get out of the car and walk away virtually untouched. That’s not to say there hasn’t been a price for it and we literally owe our lives to those that made these requirements a reality.
The following is a post from my blog; http://lacarrera2007.blogspot.com/
Recently in a interview with FORBES.COM, one of my best friends, Jerry Kunzman, executive director of the National Auto Sport Association, said that auto racing is safer than it was, particularly since the 2001 death of racing legend Dale Earnhardt resulted in more cars being fitted with improved head and neck restraints. But the sport still takes about three lives per year.
“Oval [track] racing has big groups of cars together, so a mistake by one driver could mean 20 getting into an accident,” Kunzman says. He adds that open road racing, while more spread out, has more configurations and angles that could cause a crash and typically carries a higher risk of rollovers.
The Indianapolis 500 has produced 41 deaths since 1909, according to the race’s Web site, while the NASCAR circuit has suffered ten fatalities since 1989, though none have occurred since Earnhardt’s death.
Competitive thrill seekers aren’t all 20-something Mountain Dew-chugging climbers, jumpers and extreme skateboarders. The top four finishers in the last Iditarod, the renowned 1,150-mile dog-sled race across Alaska, were all over 50 years old.
What makes them take on such risky endeavors? Dr. Samuel Putnam, an assistant professor of psychology at Bowdoin College in Maine, says thrill seeking behavior is mostly genetic, and that signs of it–from climbing the highest tree to swinging as high as possible on a swing set–can be recognized from very early ages.
“There is a gene that seems to be associated with adventure-seeking behavior,” says Putnam.
Gary Faules says
August 7, 2007 at 11:14 amSpeaking of racing related deaths…. Worse is the number of guys murdered by wives who found out how much they spent on their race cars.
Here lies Gary
Dead as can be
Lied to his wife
Not much left to bury.
Gary says
August 7, 2007 at 4:39 pmI’ve long had a theory that more racers have died driving to or from an event than have died from on track injuries.
Gary says
August 8, 2007 at 4:08 amWith a broken half shaft sticking out of his…