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Indy car crash in Vegas: RIP Dan Wheldon

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Fenders prevent the open wheels from contacting.
Once the open wheels contact, they can, and usually do, climb on each other.
Quite a bit faster too.
[:/]



Yep. The pucker factor of closing on the car in front of you and no way to avoid it is indescribable. You know you're going for a ride and it isn't going to end well.
HAMMER:
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kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the
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Yep. The pucker factor of closing on the car in front of you and no way to avoid it is indescribable. You know you're going for a ride and it isn't going to end well.



Here is video of Mark Webber's F1 crash at the 2010 European Grand Prix in Valencia Spain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kNZzqqdhM0

Yes it is F1 not IRL and yes it is a road course not an oval. But it still shows what happens when the wheels of these open wheelers touch. BTW ... Mark walked away from this crash unhurt. But it could have been so much worse had he landed differently.


Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

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Fenders prevent the open wheels from contacting.
Once the open wheels contact, they can, and usually do, climb on each other.
Quite a bit faster too.
[:/]



I didn't ask you for your opinion. I wanted the other guy to answer it. Know-it-all.:P


Fenders prevent the open wheels from contacting.
Once the open wheels contact, they can, and usually do, climb on each other.
Quite a bit faster too.

Signed the "Other Guy" :P

Sorry, I had to take my mom to get her hair done and to a couple stores.

Seriously, NASCAR, with the full bodies can and do touch on a regular basis. On the slower short tracks they use it as a passing technique (look up the "Darlington Stripe") It may cause one or the other to spin out, but it won't cause the catastophic "cars flying through the air" like we saw in this crash.

NASCAR also has full bodies and full roll cages (the entire frame is bascally a roll cage). The drivers are a lot, lot better protected. Even when they do roll or impact the walls hard, the driver is usually not hurt much.
"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

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Actually I am surprised they stopped the race. When Greg Moore was killed at Fontana in 1999 they continued the race. When Alex Zanardi lost his legs in a crash in Germany in 2001 they also finished that race.



Typically over here in Britain/Europe it's traditional to continue with the race, as it's seen that no driver would want to be the one to stop it happening. US etc is a little different and typically the race is stopped like this event. I have no idea why it wasn't stopped at Fontana in 1999 though!

I agree with what everyone else has said really. Packing 30 high aero dependant cars onto such a small space is what created this incident. The amount of down force and air pressure lost due to turbulent air from the front of the pack towards the back would have been enough to make a tiny tiny mistake by any driver easily turn into a huge out of control slide/drift causing pile ups. Similar theory to skydiving and flying directly behind someone!

This is just adding to my confusion about my perspective on death. Especially in terms of whether to jump or not, the choices I make in life and the ultimate meaning and worth of living.

RIP

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have no idea why it wasn't stopped at Fontana in 1999 though!



Because the track wasn't heavily damaged. Moore's crash was as awful as anything I've seen (I was a few miles away when it happened) but it also occurred in the infield.

Just seeing the video of this and the absolute mess it made on the track. I imagine some significant gouges and pits were in the track after this crash and I would think that it would be even more unsafe to proceed.

This is conjecture but, jeez, looking at the devastation I would think that the pavement took a pretty good pounding.


My wife is hotter than your wife.

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have no idea why it wasn't stopped at Fontana in 1999 though!



Because the track wasn't heavily damaged. Moore's crash was as awful as anything I've seen (I was a few miles away when it happened) but it also occurred in the infield.



Yeah fair point,

They never leave it to chance which is a good thing, this years Le Mans 24 Hours they spent 4/5 hours under the safety car due to McNish and Rocky crashing and damaging barriers. Good to know that due care is taken in a lot of cases. Just a shame about this one really. If anything it needs to be a wake up call that what was going on in the race was unnessecery danger!

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Seriously, NASCAR, with the full bodies can and do touch on a regular basis. On the slower short tracks they use it as a passing technique (look up the "Darlington Stripe") It may cause one or the other to spin out, but it won't cause the catastophic "cars flying through the air" like we saw in this crash.



Ummm... maybe you need to look it up.. the Darlington Stripe has nothing to do with fender to fender contact, but fender to wall contact ... and I believe the passing technique you are referring to on short tracks is called the 'bump and run' and that has nothing to do with open wheel contact either, it's when you bump the guy in front of you going into a turn to force him to correct to the right and slide up the track while you go low and pass.


Here, I looked it up:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/388136-the-darlington-stripe-damage-that-is-well-earned-and-well-respected

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Seriously, NASCAR, with the full bodies can and do touch on a regular basis. On the slower short tracks they use it as a passing technique (look up the "Darlington Stripe") It may cause one or the other to spin out, but it won't cause the catastophic "cars flying through the air" like we saw in this crash.



Ummm... maybe you need to look it up.. the Darlington Stripe has nothing to do with fender to fender contact, but fender to wall contact ... and I believe the passing technique you are referring to on short tracks is called the 'bump and run' and that has nothing to do with open wheel contact either, it's when you bump the guy in front of you going into a turn to force him to correct to the right and slide up the track while you go low and pass.


Here, I looked it up:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/388136-the-darlington-stripe-damage-that-is-well-earned-and-well-respected



Oops on the Darlington stripe. But the bump and run is part of what NASCAR can do that is not possible in open wheel. And there is a well known tire rub "donut" mark that shows up after contact in NASCAR that would result in an 'Up and Over" crash in open wheel.

This is the best I could find in a quick search. It's a decal that fans can put on their own car, not a pic from a real race car.
http://www.racingdonut.com/
"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

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have no idea why it wasn't stopped at Fontana in 1999 though!



Because the track wasn't heavily damaged. Moore's crash was as awful as anything I've seen (I was a few miles away when it happened) but it also occurred in the infield.

Just seeing the video of this and the absolute mess it made on the track. I imagine some significant gouges and pits were in the track after this crash and I would think that it would be even more unsafe to proceed.

This is conjecture but, jeez, looking at the devastation I would think that the pavement took a pretty good pounding.



The track at Vegas was, in fact, heavily damaged and the track crews had to put down some patch material. It was a big ? whether the patches would have held up to the lateral forces given the brief time they would have had to set.
HAMMER:
Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a
kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the
object we are trying to hit.

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I just thought it was an excuse to get away from the ol' lady and hang out with the boys.



So, which bathhouse do you frequent?


What's a bath?:P
Some people refrain from beating a dead horse. Personally, I find a myriad of entertainment value when beating it until it becomes a horse-smoothie.

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