Bad Accident At Pocono

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: Whitewolf
In my view it's an inherently dangerous circuit when you look at it. Only 2.5 miles with nowhere to go, even worse with over 20 cars, too crowded, especially for open wheels.


I think any of the ovals Indy races at are. I have been to the Fontana race the past few years and was at the Vegas race when Dan Wheldon passed away. The racing is really exciting to watch, and the drivers are amazing considering what they can do. I hate seeing them that close at speed, the end result is very rarely good if they touch.

I love IndyCar and am so disappointed at the people running it. They have an awesome product and run it into the ground with a horrible schedule and no direction.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: A_Harman
You're exaggerating.

Of course. Also, I'm speaking more of generalizations, and not Wilson's case specifically at all. I'll be the first to say that very little can be done to prevent what happened. A roof on the car might have helped in this case, but that's only one case. It could be counterproductive in others, as billt460 notes. That's why I'm not so sure about that suggestion. I don't think a lot can be accomplished in a knee jerk reaction to one case. Like you said, it was a piece of debris that came flying, with everyone pretty much minding their own business, and some incredibly bad luck. Generally speaking, though, I'm stating that the sport would be well served by sterner officiating. Charlie Whiting could not have prevented this accident at all. But, F1 style officiating could instill a nice attitude change in some of these guys. It did wonders for Lewis Hamilton.

I also happen to like tracks that have a little more length to them, especially when there are more cars. I cringe at the sizes of some of the fields in these ovals. By their design, they simply don't have a lot of room for runoff, much less a lot of track room, when you have a large field.

I'm not trying to eliminate all danger at all. There are just a couple things that could be brushed up. Racing will always be dangerous, there's no question about that. This was one of those things that just happens, with some really bad luck. That doesn't mean, however, that we just wash our hands of safety issues because racing is dangerous and little could have been done to prevent this one.