Last Lap Crash - Indy 500

[Monster Dave]

Did anyone see this crash?? OMG - it's utterly amazing to me that the driver of the car that went airborn survived.

Here's the replay:

2010 Indy 500 Mike Conway Huge Airborne Crash into the Catchfence

[cyrus buelton]

Conway's spotter make the beast with two backsed up big time.

Ryan was on the inside of the track, trying to make it to the warm up lane as he was out of fuel.

Spotter's all communicate with each other, as well as Race Control.


Conway should have been on the outside, but nope........220mph approaching a 150mph car is not good.



I've seen worse Indy Car wrecks, but that one was bad. Conway got very lucky the bottom of his car hit the catch fence and not the top of it as it would have been very ugly.

He shattered his leg in a bunch of pieces and they discovered yesterday he has some vertebrae issues.


He'll recover and drive again



I tell you who had a make the beast with two backsing smack against the wall was Briscoe.

I was sitting down near T4, behind the pits and the sound of the whack of Briscoe's car was loud as make the beast with two backs considering you could hear it over all the other cars.

That dude needs to learn not to drift so high in corners and get up in the marbles. Once you get that high.......kiss control good bye, you have now become a passenger, so just left off the throttle, stay loose and wait to crack the wall.


Ryan Hunter-Raey also got a big banged up when Conway hit him.

He was cracking jokes at the banquet last night about his pain killers.

[Monster Dave]

It's outstanding (to me) that the engeneering behind Indy and Formula 1 cars is so advanced that even a crash like that at 200mph leaves a person among the living.



There's an interesting article here:

http://jalopnik.com/5549518/how-the-us-government-killed-the-safest-car-ever-built?skyline=true&s=i

- about how the US killed the safest car int he world. Check out the video of the car slaming into a wall and bouncing right off without any damage!!

[cyrus buelton]

A lot of the safety on oval racing has now come from the SAFER Barrier which was designed by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln but funded by Tony G and the Indy Racing League.

That has saved a number of lives and/or injuries since the Speedway first installed it in 2002.

Now all tracks that host a NASCAR or IRL event must have the barrier installed.



The tube the driver sits in is what saves them. A lot of the Indy Car "tub" was re-worked after Davey Hamilton had that horrofic crash in Texas (or maybe it was somewhere else, can't recall) back in the late 90's.

He had an airborn crash into the catch fence and basically took his feet and ankles and put them through a cheese grader.

Doctors in Texas wanted to amputate his feet as they deemed it impossible to repair.

The IRL Doctors from Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis said "no way" so they stabilized him, loaded him on a private plane, and flew him back to Indianapolis and that team operated and saved his feet.

Ok, so Davey has had 30+ surgeries since the crash..........but he can walk and has his feet.


NASCAR needs to get with the times and work on the safety of their cars. They chose to slow them down verse design a safer car.

There is no energy absorption on a NASCAR. It is a steal frame hitting a wall.

When an Indy car hits the wall, the arms that connect to the wheels act as the absorption barrier to absorb the impact of the crash, making it easier on the human in the car on g-force of stopping.


Ok, I'll stop. I could go on for hours on the topic. 

[mitt]

Last year there was the weird F1 accident when a spring came out and got the driver square in the helmet and it about killed him.  I can believe some debris pieces didn't do the same to Ryan Hunter-Raey - he was the lucky one IMO to still be alive.  That in car camera view is horrifying.


mitt

[Oldfisti]

Last year there was the weird F1 accident when a spring came out and got the driver square in the helmet and it about killed him.  I can believe some debris pieces didn't do the same to Ryan Hunter-Raey - he was the lucky one IMO to still be alive.  That in car camera view is horrifying.


mitt

Fillipe Massa got the spring to the head. F1 has been pretty safe since the changes they made after Ayerton Senna's death. The only memorable accidents with injury that come to my mind (I know I will be missing something here) are M. Schumacher breaking his leg at Silverstone several years ago, Kubica's nasty crash in Montreal and the Fil Massa incident. All returned to racing in short order.

[derby]

Fillipe Massa got the spring to the head. F1 has been pretty safe since the changes they made after Ayerton Senna's death. The only memorable accidents with injury that come to my mind (I know I will be missing something here) are M. Schumacher breaking his leg at Silverstone several years ago, Kubica's nasty crash in Montreal and the Fil Massa incident. All returned to racing in short order.

kubica only had a slight concussion and sprained his ankle.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2266131342977117690#

turn the volume down on this one:

[Kopfjäger]

Katherine Legge's crash was pretty intense.



Katherine Legge Crash on Road America

[ducpainter]

I recorded the race...

thanks for the make the beast with two backsing spoiler.

[derby]

I recorded the race...

thanks for the make the beast with two backsing spoiler.

dude, if you haven't watched the 2007 montreal grand prix by now... 

[ducpainter]

dude, if you haven't watched the 2007 montreal grand prix by now... 

Shit...

it's 2007?

[Oldfisti]

Zanardi's crash is one of the worst in mordern Indycar that I can think of.  It's tragic he lost his legs but monocoque design has been improved because of it.  Much like Earnhardt and the HANS device it was not in vain.  Something positive came out of it.


Zanardi loses his legs in a crash

[Kopfjäger]

Zanardi is the man.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Zanardi



Alex Zanardi on the Late Show with David Letterman - Part 2