Oval Racing, and it's dangers a race too far?.....

[Robin Plummer]

Alex Zanardi isnt aloud to drive on them because his wfie say's their not safe. Emmerson Fittpaldi got badly injured on one and retired. Parker Johnstone got scared and retired. Spectators have been killed by wheels on one. Greg Moore got killed on one, two Nascar drivers have died this year on one. Oval racing is it too dangerous?. It does make for very close and fast racing with much passing, but is it a thing for the dirt track boys?

[Dave S]

Read Rahal's recent interview at http://www.cart.com, ovals are here to stay. Restrictor plates next year, & probably a new engine spec by 2003. Seems to be the spec 1st talked about a year or so ago. 1.8Liter, turbo V8 running 55in of boost. Should slow top speeds on the big ovals & still have awesome acceleration for the road courses.

[Liz]

Spoil the cars to keep the ovals safe. Take a perfect product and screw it up in the name of safety, rather than get rid of what is unsafe: namely the blasted TRACK. Makes perfect sense if you are in F1.

I agree with Robin. The time to get rid of these things is long past. But it won't happen until a big name American pilote, God forbid, is killed or crippled on a superspeedway. Then the lawsuits will take care of the situation. But that prospect does not appeal to me.

[Heeltoe6]

Plenty of drivers have sadly been killed on road courses.

[Liz]

True. But we don't immediately go to screwing up the cars when that happens. Usually we screw up the track. In this case virtually nothing is being done to make the track safer. Why on earth not?

[Crash Test]

If they get rid of ovals the series would turn into a carbon blob as F1 much poorer cousin. A part of being the Cart champion is that the driver is the master of all disciplines...

Liz: What about Senna? Didnt they change the cars a lot after that?

Big name American pilot gets killed....what a load of ****...

Ovals set Cart and IRL apart from the rest of the world...if you dont like em, go and watch F1...isn't there a lot more *****ing about the state of F1 than Cart??

[R]

I agree with what Liz says about safety on the ovals, but I am not in favour of dropping them all together. But I definately think they should be made as safe as possible, something which is clearly not the situation today. I saw the highlights from Michigan yesterday, and Christian Fittipaldi's off on the infield reminded me too much of what happened to Greg Moore, except Fittipaldi's car did not get airborn. Why the hell haven't they got rid of that grass on the infield to prevent such accidents from happening again?!?

[Jared]

I really hate to sound like an IRLer, but if you want all-road courses, watch F1.

Crash Test, you said it perfectly.

The tracks are not the problem. The walls are. A soft wall system needs to be developed, tested and implemented NOW. Antonio Ferrari has one that has been tested and implemented at various F1 tracks that is just sitting there, while NASCAR and CART whine over the cost of it. Why not have the sanctioning body pay for it, and just ship it to each track? The marketability of the drivers will more than pay for the walls. Except in the case of Senna, a dead driver is not a very marketable driver.

[floid2000]

Thanks Crash I'm really getting sick of all the foriegners trying to run "our" series. Watch the sissy boys of F1 if you dont like real racing. Ovals are an American form of racing . Love it OR Leave it Liz

[Robin Plummer]

floid2000 When you say I'm really getting sick of all the foriegners trying to run "our" series." Does that include Tony George of the IRL????....

[enzo]

Relative to the rest of the country, being from Indiana DOES make you foreign !