Quote:
Originally Posted by Brickyard
How many on here, to include yourself, would advocate to go back to the days of no roll cages and seat belts? I find it insane that we used to race that way.....
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On that topic, I can remember watching a video on A.J. Foyt. This was probably 25+years ago. At that time, and even moreso, at this time, A.J. was a true product of racing through the decades.
The topic at this point in the video pertained to cars crashing, rolling over, and drivers being hurt or, worse yet, killed. Safety was always improving, but should always CONTINUE to improve.
A.J. noted that back in the days before roll cages and and better driver protection (full face helmets, neck braces, etc.) you had to think twice before making a daring cut and slice type move or throwing your car in real deep into a corner to outbreak your opponent. If you made a mistake and your car rolled or crashed, you would then have 3, 4, 5 months, or so, laying in a hospital bed, thinking about it. And once healed and back racing, trying that again without remembering what went wrong last time.
Nowadays (referring to midgets/sprints/Silver Crown) you have full roll cages and the drivers are heavily protected via belts, helmets, and padding. He pointed out that it was common back in the "old days" to pack pieces of cardboard under your driver's suit for shoulder padding.
But with this extra protection, the attitude of the new drivers changed. They became more daring. So you flip, roll, and crash? Now you just climb out through the cage and go on to your next race. It changed the racing ITSELF. If you were not willing to continually throw yourself into the frying pan with over the top moves, you were not going to get ahead. Too many of the other drivers will do it for you. Now your veteran drivers are not just the ones leading the big dicey daring moves. The new drivers are doing it, too. EVERYONE knows you have a much less chance of injury due to the safety upgrades, so, in a sense, everyone gained a little more courage for the envelope could be pressed further.
Now, this type of analogy really is not that applicable to IndyCars, for there is only so many daring moves one could make vice a sprint car. But, could it possibly change the dynamics of the racing form from what it is today? I do not think it would be as much as, let us say, when wings came about, or rear engine cars, but a change is a change and everything will play out. I think if anything, it might change the aero on the cars, but when all chassis are the same.....?