Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Chad McDaniel was killed in a non-wing midget at Knoxville. Brian Clauson was killed in a non-wing midget at Belleville. Both of these tracks are 1/2 mile tracks (Belleville is nearly 5/8 next to the guardrail). Maybe it is time to require an intake restrictor plate for midgets on any track longer than 3/8 that they run on. 

youtube.com/watch?v=bJZquxOlUG4

youtube.com/watch?v=JKXPZJ6U14g

I think both tragedies were a result of being contacted by another midget mid-flip

-Austin Rankin

That won't help.   That'll just make all the cars exactly the same speed, make it harder to pass, and probably cause even more serious accidents.    In BC's case he was hit in the cage.   That would have been a fatal crash on a 1/4 mile too.   I don't think you'll see any changes coming because of this.    

Some accidents just seem unsurvivable. It's the tragic and dangerous part of the sport.

I haven't watched the accidents mentioned above and won't, but from how they've been described, it's very difficult to imagine those accidents being survivable given the way midget cars are constructed.

What would a restrictor plate accomplish? 

Keep It Real

Yup! In Clauson's case the part I keep going back to and have said to myself over and over again "if his car could have just gone out of the place". Most people look at Belleville the first time and go "Holy shit! I hope I never see anybody go out of this place!". The fact of the matter is that I have seen that happen so many times now that I can't tell you how many but with the exception of one every single one of them walked away that night and the one that didn't is healthily alive (Shane Scully). Spectacular and scary all at the same time yes but deadly no. My first trip there was 1993 and the last fatality before Bryan's happened the year before in 1992 when Bob Schupp flipped violently down the front straight when something broke on the car. I do not believe that Schupp's car was hit by another during that accident. In 1997 they put another rail above the single rail that historically encircled the Highbanks and ironically it was that year that I saw my first driver go out of the ballpark which was Scott Fielder who went out of the place on the back stretch. If anything could be done to make the Belleville Highbanks safer I would argue that removing the second rail would be a step in the right direction because it would potentially prevent a car from being tossed back on the track where it could be hit by another one like Bryan's was.