Sad News - Tragedy at IRL Season Opener

[Chris24]

Tragedy Strikes IRL Opener
Written by: SPEED Staff
 Miami, FL – 3/26/2006


Paul Dana and Ed Carpenter were flown to a hospital Sunday morning following a violent crash during the second lap of the final practice session before the Toyota Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

It was confirmed by IRL officials at 12:45 p.m. ET that Dana's injuries were fatal. Carpenter was reported as stable.

Carpenter’s No. 20 Vision Racing Honda/Dallara apparently spun in Turn 2, and videotaped replays showed Dana’s car broad-siding Carpenter’s stopped car. The front of Dana’s No. 17 Rahal Letterman Racing Honda/Panoz was sheared off, and initial radio reports indicated Dana had sustained serious leg injuries.

Carpenter was reportedly knocked unconscious briefly, but was awake and alert when he was transported by helicopter to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.

“I’ve been told he’s awake and alert and going to be fine,” Vision Racing team manager Larry Curry said of Carpenter. “They just want to check him out.”

The practice session was postponed. The race, the season opener for the IRL IndyCar Series, is scheduled to begin at 3:45 p.m

[Pieter]

That is indeed very sad news.

[Matt Harper]

This was a particularly ugly crash, which was aired repeatedly on TV news last night. Carpenter lost it and ended up across the track - nose to the infield. Dana must have been unsighted, because he nailed Carpenters car in the rear wheel/transaxle area (the hard part) at around 190mph. Dana's car pretty much exploded on impact, so hopefully he didn't suffer.
Sure as hell brings it home that there is a very serious side to this racing lark.
Brit Dan Wheldon won the race, by the way.

[Fax]

To be honest I'm very surprised that this doesn't happen more often in the IRL than it does.  Racing week and week out at sustained 200 MPH speeds is inviting disaster everytime out.  Was a very strange accident though, Carpenter's car had been stationary for a couple of seconds when Dana hit him.  Makes me wonder if it was a similar accident to the one that claimed Ricardo Paletti at Montreal in 1982 when he ran right into the back of Pironi's stalled Ferrari because he was looking down at his guages and not at the track in front of him.  One would think Dana had to of seen the yellow lights come on.
Fax

[chop456]

To be honest I'm very surprised that this doesn't happen more often in the IRL than it does.  Racing week and week out at sustained 200 MPH speeds is inviting disaster everytime out.  Was a very strange accident though, Carpenter's car had been stationary for a couple of seconds when Dana hit him.  Makes me wonder if it was a similar accident to the one that claimed Ricardo Paletti at Montreal in 1982 when he ran right into the back of Pironi's stalled Ferrari because he was looking down at his guages and not at the track in front of him.  One would think Dana had to of seen the yellow lights come on.
Fax

It was 8-9 seconds of yellow before impact.  They have dash lights that light up when the track is yellow and the spotters supposedly called it to Dana, also.

I don't know what to make if it, really.  Robin Miller has a pretty critical article up on speedtv.com, laying blame with Dana being in over his boots and also team owners giving a ride to anyone that can afford it, regardless of qualifications.

[Martini...LB]

This was a particularly ugly crash, which was aired repeatedly on TV news last night. Carpenter lost it and ended up across the track - nose to the infield. Dana must have been unsighted, because he nailed Carpenters car in the rear wheel/transaxle area (the hard part) at around 190mph. Dana's car pretty much exploded on impact, so hopefully he didn't suffer.
Sure as hell brings it home that there is a very serious side to this racing lark.
Brit Dan Wheldon won the race, by the way.

Very sad but also makes you wonder about the safety fencing at Sebring, perhaps, not that spectators were hurt this time.


Martini...

[Matt Harper]

Dana being in over his boots and also team owners giving a ride to anyone that can afford it, regardless of qualifications.

I wasn't going to say it Chop, but I think this may well have been a factor. My understanding is that Paul Dana was primarily a motorsports journalist from Indianapolis. Maybe he was a little out of his depth - it was a mighty long time between Carpenter losing control and the collision. That tunnel vision thing when you are hauling the mail can lead to inexperienced drivers 'zoning-out'. Probably didn't even see it coming because there didn't appear to be any attempt at braking or swerving to avoid the other car. Things do tend to rush at you pretty frickin' quickly at those speeds, I'd imagine.

[Fax]

The whole rent-a-driver issue has been a big problem with IRL since its inception.  Really there are only a handful of drivers in the series with any real ability and the rest a bunch of wealthy amatures.  It's at its worst during the month of May during the build up to the Indy 500 when you've got guys who don't go near a Indy car all year and then spend the month of May trying to knock the walls down.
I fully realize that paying drivers are a fact of life in motor racing and have been for a very long time, but as I said, in the IRL they are racing at VERY high sustained speeds and the consequences of someone getting it wrong were violently illustrated yesterday.
Fax

[Fax]

Here's a link to the article by Robin Miller of the Indy Star,
he pretty well hits it on the screws.
http://www.speedtv.com/commentary/22748/
Fax

[chop456]

Really there are only a handful of drivers in the series with any real ability and the rest a bunch of wealthy amatures.  It's at its worst during the month of May during the build up to the Indy 500 when you've got guys who don't go near a Indy car all year and then spend the month of May trying to knock the walls down.

It'll be especially bad this year as they've already filled the field for the non-Indy races with retirees, has-beens and never-weres.  Cheever has never failed to rise to the level of his incompetence, and to see Michael Andretti throw his kid into the blender makes me ill.  Even he was afraid to even run a full season 2 years ago but it's somehow good enough for his offspring.  Those cars are dangerious enough without talentless hacks behind the wheel.  What started 10 years ago as an ego trip has turned into some truly sick stuff.

Also, Chevrolet has supposedly sued Cheever for $700,000 in back debt.   Couldn't happen to a better loser. 

[Fax]

Glad you feel the same way about Cheever as I do, he's one of those guys you looked at and thought, how in the hell did that guy stay in F1 as long as he did with so little talent?  When he and Arie Luyendyk were paired togther at Ganassi back in the early ninties I thought the team should have won some kind of award for having two of most pretentous asses for drivers in the sport.  Michael's going to feel like sh*t when his kid's facing the rest of his life in a wheelchair, or worse when he goes slamming into the wall at 230 MPH at Texas, Vegas, Kentucky, etc.
As you said Chop, a sick joke.
Fax

[chrisbeatty]

It gives me no pleasure to add that German JWRC co-driver Jorg Bastuck also passed on in the tragic weekend just gone.

Sad as both these events are motorsport is dangerous & it always will be, this just underlines the importance of marshalls & safety crews.

Anyway here's to a safe running in La Sarthe this year!!

[Fax]

I read that as well, very sad news.  I always feel terribly for a rally driver who's lost his co-driver in a shunt, there can't be a worse feeling.  Motorsports are and always will be dangerous, and frankly there should be a certain element of risk, its what separates it from the stick & ball sports.  That said, the guys (and girl) in the IRL are taking plain stupid risks virtually every weekend during the summer.  Its only a matter of time before they lose two or three drivers in a single weekend, I can honestly see that happening.
Fax

[chop456]

Another not-so-kind article about Dana.  Ouch.

http://www.torontosun.com/Sports/OtherSports/2006/03/28/1508847-sun.html

[Kate Shaw]

I hope that none of the people (including Buddy Lazier) who are calling Paul Dana stupid and worthless within hours of his death will ever die in a racing car -- and I hope if they ever do, that someone isn't standing in front of an International audience that includes their widow and/or children, and calling them stupid and worthless within hours of their deaths.

There may be a good reason for the insurance company and the track (and any lawyers involved) to ascertain as nearly as possible who was at fault and what could be done to help ensure that it doesn't happen again -- insofar as they can -- but there's no reason whatsoever for the press and the fans, with nothing more solid than the pronouncements of people who don't know any more than they do, and team members who may have an agenda of their own, to be vilifying a man who is barely in his grave.

Whatever happened to nil nisi bonum for the love of God?