sprint cars use to be like a beautiful woman you couldn't keep your eyes off of, now they look like a woman who fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.
Correct PJ more .040" aluminum wouldn't help in a serious accident and I haven't said that. Perhaps I've overstepped my bounds in terms of bodies. My point is that the aesthetics of a gorgeous Edmunds midget, hood only with the driver hanging out of it, isn't coming back, because of enhanced safety measures. That's all.
Agreed Jim. The only time I've left a race and wished I'd have stayed home was when a driver was seriously injured or worse. If somehow someone did have a race for cageless sprintcars I wouldn't go. I was upset a few years ago when Kevin Olsen decided to race his midget wearing a t-shirt. Not always, but I think there may be times when a racer may say he wants to add more bodywork for safety when what he really wants is an aero advantage.
You laugh because I'm different. I laugh because you're all the same. Copied from the back of the #16 supermodified.
Originally Posted by wingless1:
I ran midgets from 1982 till 1996, never had a drivers side guard, used foam, or cardboard under my uniform around my bicep. The only time it really got my attention was at Belleville behind the V-6 of Higman, with Ken Schrader driving, that thing really kicked up some shotgun dirt clods. Made multiple bruises on my arm, even through the cardboard. One car I drove had an old style Edmunds type hood, but the cowl was not cut down, and the rounded corners of the top of the cowl kept most dirt out of the cockpit. I know we were going faster than 90 mph at Belleville.
I really hate for you to keep telling all of us how you never had a drivers side guard , used foam or cardboard. When your very next sentence you talk about how you received multiple bruises on your arm EVEN THOUGH THE CARDBOARD so tough guy which was it? For a guy who doesn"t go to races anymore cuz its a waste of your time and money seems you sure know a lot about the sports now
You have to change with the times, and the fact is, today's cars are going faster due to increase in horsepower and suspension technology. People are trying to make racing safer.
Sorry to tell you, but if u want racing to prosper with future generations you are going to have to except more closed off and streamlined bodies, the younger crowd likes the cool new designs and even the aero advantages that come with them.
Originally Posted by Jim Gardner:
Last month we mourned the loss of our most popular driver and brainstormed ways to make our cars safer. This month we complain that we can't see the drivers and that they need to be exposed to the elements of the track more? Does that make any damn sense?
Originally Posted by wingless1:
How bout no more racing all together, or put bubble wrap all around them. The spirit of the sport is lost when it no longer resembles any part of the origins of the sport. Again my opinion. If it makes you feel better, every division of oval track racing should be full bodied, with covered wheels, big surrounding bumpers like rental go-karts, maybe put lane dividers on the track so the cars won't touch each other, like gutter guards for little kids at the bowling alley. At what point does it become a joke, and not a real sport, it's dangerous always has been. Accept it, or move on to something less stressful. And that's why I'm more than happy not to waste my time or money on this crap.
Oh, so you want to go back to single roll bars 6 inches under the driver's head? How about no seat belts?
See, its easy to exaggerate & ridicule the other guy's point of view....
Originally Posted by Jim Gardner:
Last month we mourned the loss of our most popular driver and brainstormed ways to make our cars safer. This month we complain that we can't see the drivers and that they need to be exposed to the elements of the track more? Does that make any damn sense?
Its racing and tragic things happen. Nobody is really saying to go back and not run cages or whatever. I'm ok with todays sprintcars but lets not make them something else in the name of safety. Sprintcars don't need no barnstorming they need to just race.
I believe the only real solution is to go to virtual reality racing, but then folks would complain about thumb injuries and such.
Maybe 50 years around racing, seen all the good and bad has hardened me a bit but racing isn't racing without risk. Not everyone makes it out unscathed, just the way it is inless you want to change the whole fabric of the sport.
