Are more drivers being injured................

[indyracer56]

Are more drivers being injured due to the wheel teathers keeping the wheels attached to the cars, and in many cases, damaging the tubs of the cars?

It seems to me that many of the injury crashes we have seen lately, Dare, Giffaone, etc., might not have resulted in injury if the wheels broke away from the cars on impact like they used to do.

I'm just wondering if a major rethink in tub design is in order due to the changes in the safety specs over the last few years.

[debdrake]

In some cases (not all!) we've had guys hurt this year because they were driving like it was the last lap - but they were doing it at the beginning of the race.

[Cant_hit_apex]

It's possible that tethered wheels may introduce a certain level of risk to the driver, but it's not really possible to measure this against the injuries that might have occured by wheels in the stands. I think those tethers are primarily there to protect the public. I'm sure drivers would prefer broken, big, heavy, bouncing wheels as far away from them as possible.

[NoviVespa]

Aren't most of the injuries the result of the car backing into the wall? If that's the case, the wheel tethers aren't a factor.

[indyracer56]

Originally posted by NoviVespa
Aren't most of the injuries the result of the car backing into the wall?

No.

You don't break bones on the right side of your body from backing into the wall.

[debdrake]

Originally posted by Cant_hit_apex
It's possible that tethered wheels may introduce a certain level of risk to the driver, but it's not really possible to measure this against the injuries that might have occured by wheels in the stands. I think those tethers are primarily there to protect the public. I'm sure drivers would prefer broken, big, heavy, bouncing wheels as far away from them as possible.

Yeah, but the drivers following might prefer that the wheels stay attached - rather than bouncing into/onto their car. I can think of a couple of guys (and a girl) who've been taken out of races by flying wheels coming from accidents that they were not otherwise involved in.

[Doc Austin]

I remember one year at Michigan when a loose wheel bounce off Gil's rollbar and took out the in car camera.

[pfc_m_drake]

Originally posted by Doc Austin
I remember one year at Michigan when a loose wheel bounce off Gil's rollbar and took out the in car camera.

Me too. That was scary.

I was also at MIS in 1998. Count me as a fan of wheel tethers

[SoDak_IndyFan]

I don't believe I've seen anything anywhere suggesting the injuries Giaffone & Dare' received were from the wheels/suspension staying with the car, please correct me if I'm wrong. I would have thought the type of injuries you "might" see were the penetrating ones if this were the case, like what Salazar suffered a few years back. I don't believe either driver suffered from those either. They were simply big hits, especially in Airton's case. You don't slam 150-160 lb young men head-long in to a wall at 200 mph and not expect the "blunt force trauma" (for the lack of a better phrase) injuries that they suffered.

JMHO

[nm]

Sarah was lucky she was not killed at Texas in 2001. A loose wheel from the two car accident ahead of her hit the nose of her car and bounced only a couple of feet directly over her head. There was an in car camera.

[Tom Sherping]

Originally posted by nm
Sarah was lucky she was not killed at Texas in 2001. A loose wheel from the two car accident ahead of her hit the nose of her car and bounced only a couple of feet directly over her head. There was an in car camera.

I recall that incident clearly. When the accident ahead of her occurred, her spotter directed Sarah to slow and move to the inside wall, which she did . . . . just in time to collect the wheel.

[step33T]

That happened to her twice that year.

She also had a wheel assembly hit her LF tire at Atlanta. THE "Big One" in IRL history - Casey Mears flying through the air on fire, McGehee sliding through a big ball of flames. Robbie Buhl limping across the infield back to the med center. And Dr. Jack "somehow" lived to retire after being taken from what was left of an Indy Car, the tub and engine, everything else was gone.

And at TMS, that wheel assembly she punted wound up in bouncing around the sign board guys.

All in all, it's better to keep those things attached. Safer for EVERYONE.

[happyscrappy]

Originally posted by SoDak_IndyFan
I don't believe I've seen anything anywhere suggesting the injuries Giaffone & Dare' received were from the wheels/suspension staying with the car, please correct me if I'm wrong.

I seem to remember a theory being discussed after the Giafone crash that the tire being between the tub and the wall at the impact caused the all the forces to be directed through the wheel, to the tub and the leg was fractued at that point. Just what I remember reading. Could of happend if the tethers weren't there, I don't think they made either of those wreaks any worse.

----
Another freaky debris moment was part of Helio's brake rotor almost landing on one of the sign board guys at Richmond last year.

[NoviVespa]

Just read an article by my favorite auto racing columnist. He pointed out a fact that shows how much safer auto racing is today compare to the good old days. Of the field the comprised the 1955 Indianapolis 500, more than half the drivers died of auto racing injuries in later years. Of course, they were not all killed in Indy cars only, sprints, midgets, etc.

[cmego]

Ayrton Senna died from a wheel remaining attached to his car and swung up hit him in the mellon and killed him.Maybe they need shorter tethers.