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

Actually there has been one fatality when a car hit the bridge at Williams Grove.  I was a 10 year old in the infield with my dad in April of 1958 when during the "stock block feature" a driver named George Pettit lost controll coming off turn two, hit the outside wall at the start of the backstretch, started flipping and landed on the infield steps of the bridge.  Some people said the driver was from St Petersburg, FL and others listed him as being from Stamford, CN.  As a side note, that event was the first start at Williams Grove for two future sprint car winners; Len Sutton and one A.J. Foyt. 

I understand the concerns. But reading these posts makes me laugh . There are SOOO many mistakes in them . One that has me scracting my head is about boiler plate at Williams Grove in turns 3-4. Where is that? Also , the concrete wall that Port put the "safer" padding on . That wall was actually there in the 50's. I was there shortly after they uncovered the dirt from it when they were building the new Pit entrance to the speedway. Travers DID NOT crash throwing an axle into the stands at Port either. I could go on . At least everyone's thoughts are on the right track . Just pointing out many errors in the posts.

Carry on !!!

Maybe it wasn't Travers but somebody did. I spoke with my dad about it who has a memory like a sponge and he said 100% for sure it was Dick Travers but regardless, I was 6 years old and it happened right in front of me. About 3 rows down and slightly to the right. I'll never forget it. The axle with a wheel and a shock attached to it flew over the wall when he hit the inside guardrail. The guy who ultimately got hit saw it coming over and basically shielded the woman to his right (wife I'd assume?) and he got nailed right in the face. Paramedics from the pit area climbed over the frontstetch fence to tend to the guy. He was in bad shape. If I remember correctly, he did survive. My mom covered my eyes with her hands and took me outside then shortly after, the bleachers emptied and they hosed them down. It was the worst thing I've ever seen at a racetrack and it DEFINITELY happened.

Would it help to make a maximum allowable wing angle? Perhaps this could reduce traction and in turn maybe reduce speeds?

Kyle Bates
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Instagram:@mrkylebates

I'm of the belief that there will always be some degree of danger in racing.  However I think slowing the cars down is a good idea.  These things have become missiles.  Every other form of racing has slowed the cars down to some degree.

I've hesitated to post this because I thought some people might take it wrong.  Before I say anything, I want to make it perfectly clear that I mean no disrespect to any driver at all.  But also in my belief, I don't think the drivers treat each other with a lot of respect these days.  For instance 25-30 years ago I don't remember "slide jobs" being as common as they are today.  Also if you watch the Knoxville weekly highlights you will see it at least once a race where two racers are side by side off of 2 and the car on the bottom gets a run and the guy on top of the racetrack drives down to the bottom and eventually the guy on the bottom will lift.  I'm not driving so it doesn't affect me but it's a trend I'm seeing and not liking.

I agree 100% and I've said it myself. There's a lot of aggressive driving that goes on now. In my totally inexperienced opinion, I think it's mostly a product of the dirty air that hinders passing. I think these maneuvers we see so much of have a lot to do with guys trying to take the air away from the car challenging them. Seems like dirty air has become an epidemic since they took the dished wings away. 

     What would be wrong with raising the bridge up, say another 10 feet? That would probably cost about the same as moving it.

I think the bottom line here is that one of the sport's leading media has spoken and his opinion will carry a lot more weight than the opinions of anyone participating in this thread...myself included.  We can bet that if Doug is writing about this that it's on the minds of people at the highest levels of the sport.  Our job is to see how it all plays out over this off season. 

Stan Meissner

 The Dick Travers #9 did crash and put part of the front axle in the stands.

He hit the inside fence going into three and lost control of of four and spun the car in a circle fling the axle into the stands. He hit the inside fence in front of me and my buddy.

Yes they did hose the grandstand down.  What was weird was there were 3 guys in the top row of the concrete stands and they stayed the whole time and watched them wash the blood away.

If a person wants to see why the pit road opening needs a gate at Port.  Look at the pictures of Lance's wreck in this week's AARN. 

It looks bad with him just hitting the fence how bad would it have been for him to hit the opening and suddenly stop.  We were sitting right at the opening Sunday and he missed it by about 10 feet.

I know a current sprint car driver at Port that asked the track in January 2018 to address the opening because of safety concerns.  The track said they didn't see any reason it was a problem.   So I guess some name drivers voiced a concern and we lost a great driver and now it  is a hazard.  So January is was OK? 

I don't remember the guys staying but that's strange. I know my mother didn't dare let me see more than I already did. She covered my eyes and took me to the car (which we always had parked by the red MacBarney's building) immediately. Dad thought for sure they'd cancel the race but when they went back to green, we went back in. He figured "what's the chances of it happening twice in one night?." A friend of mine from school used to go with his parents and after that, they never went back to Port Royal again that I know of. As far as the pit opening at Port, I agree 100%. They did a nice job with the soft wall installation and I heard they put a water barrel inside the tractor tire at the turn 1 entrance. Hopefully we see these improvements continue at Port and all the other tracks. Better safe than sorry.

Wasn't it URC driver Ed Wylie's axle? It was a Kids Night and my son and I were standing at the old gate where you used to go from the infield into the old sprint pits waiting to race his big wheel.

I don't remember the one you're speaking of but I think it's a different incident. The one with Travers happened in the early 90's. Kids night was started by B.J. Thomas (wife of former driver Jess Thomas) and Patty Beam so kids night wouldn't have been a thing yet when the accident that I speak of occured. I think the first kids night was 1996 or 1997. I could be totally wrong though.

Question for the better traveled fans. Are track records being set all around the country on a yearly basis? Lately Knoxville is the only track I have been going to and the 410 winged record was set in 2006. Looking at that would tell me speeds have not increased much in years.

Slowing them down is a good idea but how slow would they have to go to make it safer, 10mph, 20mph? Racing is all about being faster than the next guy so it will be a continous battle to keep the speeds down.

Car design - sprints are basically a glorified go kart meant to be light and fast. Looking at these cars it doesn't seem like there is a lot of opportunity to make huge safety improvements.

    Well, I think I'm probably in the majority here when I say that Doug probably has more credibility than you. Deciding who sounds ridiculous is somewhat subjective.

I totally agree. Would slowing the cars down maybe help? Absolutely. With speed comes greater danger but that said, if you slam a guardrail opening or hit cage first into an unprotected concrete wall, I don't see a lot of difference 10 or 20 mph will make. 

Hey Ford why does Murphy need to come up with something better than a persoal attack when you are the king of personal attacks with no connection to the thread topic? Are you scared to be dethroned as the official ____ of hoseheads?

Even though I may not know you, I 
care what most of you think!

     Thanks. That made me laugh! A personal attack? It's not like I called you an idiot or anything. To be fair, you did just say he was more credible than you. I'm not sure why both slowing down the cars and fixing dangerous track defects can't both be done.

Independant of some of the other static going on in this thread, how 'bout slowing the cars a bit for safety and to make them more competitive and perhaps less costly? Here's one idiot's thoughts:

1)A compression rule- less horsepower, less engine cost
2)A 4'x5' top wing with both sideboards having the same up/down offset- Cars would have 20% less downforce, wings would still have the cushioning effect in a crash and the cars' looks wouldn't change much
3) A narrower and/or harder tire compound
4) Add 50#- or whatever- to the minimum weight so that there is no penalty for cars that have added safety features built in

This type of response was expected when I posted but I went ahead because I like to live on n the edge.  So now I'm an idiot because I consider Doug more of an authority than you?  Funny...

Stan Meissner

Low blow, uncalled for....

Go to your room