Quote:
Originally Posted by Al Soran
Nobody wants to see anyone get hurt. But, who decides where you stop with the safety devices? Again, wings no doubt cushion the driver in a crash. Should we all run them? How about a nerf car that extends around the wheels? That would eliminate a lot of the flips. Mandatory halon systems would save folks from burning. Perhaps airbags that deploy with a hard hit? And on and on.....
My point is that somewhere in all of this, you can lose the "sport" of racing. It may sound bad, but sprint car racing is attractive to me because I know folks can get hurt, yet they still go out there and blast a cushion wide open. Thay harness the power, and face the danger. It's exciting. If we safetyfy it to the point that it's just a bunch of padded cars going around a padded track, I'm not sure anyone will want to watch it.
It's a fine line between keeping drivers and fans safe, and maintaining the integrity of the sport. I mean, fenders would certainly make them safer, maybe restrictor plates, safer barrier walls,...is this beginning to sound familiar?
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Al, this is a great point and pretty much how i feel about the whole safety equipment. The 40's 50's and 60's are considered sprint cars glory days. Stands were filled with people who wanted to watch drivers racing sprint cars literally on the edge of disaster and flirting with death lap after lap. Danger sells. Nascar died with Dale Sr. The sport became obsessed with safety in order to please the huge companies that didn't want bad images. Look at Nascar today, the COT isn't a race car at all, it's a big safety bus. Racing isn't safe, sprint cars are the last crude form of racing left. I never want to see this sport end up like Nascar, an organization that was once truly full of characters.