View Full Version : NASCAR off to a scary start this year...
Half a race car flies through the catch fence; engine, tire, suspension parts and injures 15 fans. It makes me wonder if NASCAR the most dangerous sport to spectators.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/23/us/florida-daytona-crash/?hpt=hp_t1
eddief
02-23-2013, 05:24 PM
Drive hard, stay safe. I don't really care about racing, but we could use "the feel good story of the year" tomorrow.
Half a race car flies through the catch fence; engine, tire, suspension parts and injures 15 fans. It makes me wonder if NASCAR the most dangerous sport to spectators.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/23/us/florida-daytona-crash/?hpt=hp_t1
Louis
02-23-2013, 05:24 PM
I have to believe that for some fans that's part of the thrill.
rnhood
02-23-2013, 05:26 PM
Not really. Nascar is responsible for a lot of innovation in race track safety and driver/car safety. Of course any type of high speed racing is not without its risks.
Yeah, think of those car rallies in Europe where the cars are just feet away from the spectators standing on the roadside? Now that's crazy, IMO.
Relatively speaking, no.
http://auto-fail.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/audi-rally-spectators-on-road.jpg
parris
02-23-2013, 08:17 PM
Wasn't it a couple of really terrible crashes that killed spectators as well as the death of Henri Toivinen(sp) that sealed the fate of group B rally in the mid 80's? I seem to remember that the crowd control at several of the rally stages was completely lacking and the fans were within feet of the cars as they would pass by.
The big one was Mercedes at Le Mans in 1955. 83 spectators killed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_Le_Mans_disaster
Steelman
02-24-2013, 03:32 AM
Irony is, it would be a scarier start if there wasn't at least one big crash.
Crashes are what Nascar "fans" pay to see, not stock cars passing endlessly around a boring oval.
Crashes are what Nascar "fans" pay to see, not stock cars passing endlessly around a boring oval.
I don't know of any NASCAR fans who "pay" to see crashes. They more pay to support their team/driver of choice.
As to "boring ovals," Sonoma and Watkins Glen are hardly that, both of which are road courses on the NASCAR circuit. If you can make it around either course as fast as a NASCAR driver in a 3,500-pound sedan, I'm sure you'd get a potential ride for the 2014 season.
Bruce K
02-24-2013, 05:18 AM
Any form of high speed competition has an element of danger
Runners get injured, bike racers, bobsleds, luges, ski racers (Lindsey Vaughn -sp?) race cars of all description crash. It's generally NOT what fans want.
It also wasn't what I wanted as a car owner and driver for over 12 years of racing Nd more as an official with SCCA and a driver with IMSA.
Despite huge improvements in safety features at tracks (a huge number if them developed by NASCAR) not everything can be accounted for.
Sometimes systems don't perform as planned and sometimes things happen in unexpected ways.
It is a rough start and a sad day but hopefully the 500 will be a good show (for NASCA's and the drivers sakes.
More importantly, hopefully all the injured fans will recover.
BK
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