What if…after the accident that ultimately took the life of Fireball Roberts we had not made changes to fuels cells and made stronger the mandate for fire protection? I feel certain many lives more would have been lost. What if…after the pit road accident in Atlanta in 1990 that took the life of right rear tire changer for Bill Elliott, Mike Rich, we had not slowed cars on pit road. I feel certain more lives would have been lost on pit road. What if…after crash during the 1987 Winton 500 at Talladega by Bobby Allison that threatened the safety of the fans, NASCAR had not taken measures to slow the cars on those tracks. Certainly speeds would have continued to increase and lives would have been lost. Racers will always drive to the limits allowed. Nothing less could be considered racing.
Open wheel cars with open cockpits inherently bare more potential risk than full-fender cars with full roll cages. Open wheel racers know the potential dangers of touching wheels. But, I think all will say they would prefer maximum separation on the race track. Is it OK for the sake of excitement to allow the limits of speed versus venue to be exceeded to a point that creates an unacceptable risk?
Tightly packed fields traveling at the speeds made possible by high banked turns offers minimal separation and little time and space to avoid even the slightest mishap. I do not know if the best solution could be slowing down the cars or whether smaller fields would allow enough separation to improve over all safety. Or…should Indy Cars be taken off the high banked ovals? Or…will this level of risk be considered acceptable?
The next generation Indy Car appears to offer improvements that may make the cars safer. But, there seems to be a speed threshold on any racetrack that relates to increased danger. I do not think the level of risk created when the track speed threshold is passed is worth the reward when that risk includes loss of life.
The sport of motor racing is very dangerous and always will be. Where do we draw the line for an acceptable level of danger?
