Texas in Trouble?

[Liz]

According to Jeremy Shaw, there was a lot of concerrn in meetings last night as everyone except Kenny and Our Paul reported suffering vertigo, illness and difficulties after running that track yesterday. Apparently the word is that the cars are way too fast for the track and the pilots are suffering severe problems as a result.

So far nothing has been said but "The race will be held" but serious doubts have been cast.

This was at 10:15 p.m. last night. Anybody got any updates?

[Jay]

Since seeing the huge accident in the IRL race at a similar track, I have been a little worried about what could happen this afternoon. These cars are lapping an average of about 15 mph faster thant the IRL cars do, and I think the Texas track is a bit tighter than the Atlanta one.

Has the warm up gone ahead? I checked at Cart.com, and at the live timing it just says "Warmup is on hold". This is at 1:00pm EST, and it was supposed to go at 11:00 AM. It also says that it is a clear and sunny day. Is there something happening here that I don't know???

[Jay]

OK. It's been cancelled. The race was deemed too dangerous by the drivers association.

While I am disapointed we will not have a race this afternoon, I have had a bad feeling about it for a while, so I am relieved as well...

[Jay]

There is a news confrence right now... We'll see what they have to say.

[Jay]

From Speedvision.com:

Bulletin - Texas Event Postponed (Updated)
Ft. Worth, Texas, April 29 — Today's CART FedEx Championship Series Firestone Firehawk 600kat Texas Motor Speedway has been postponed.

The reason given is concern over dizziness suffered by drivers after extended periods of time being exposed to very high g-loads on the 24deg banks of the 1.5mi speedway.

Although the word "postponed" was used, it sure seems like a cancellation.
New CART CEO Joe Heitzler made the announcement, with Dr. Steve Olvey describing the effects of high g-loading being experienced by the drivers.

[wodonnell]

Assuming the race IS cancelled (and not just postponed), does Kenny still get his point for Pole or is that null and void?

[Liz]

Thank God they have cancelled this race. I have had a bad feeling about it since Mo's acccident and I am very relieved that for once the human element triumphed over the pocketbook element!

I just kept thinking of the "Challenger" when they knew it was a bad idea but because they didn't want to be jeered by the media, they crossed their fingers and went ahead ...

Cancel the blasted thing and don't go back there with these cars.

And there is absolutely nothing on Cart.com but deafening silence. Shouldn't they be the first to tell us?

[Jay]

I think they are going to rebroadcast the press confrence on Cart.com at 3:00 pm.

Cart.com is always the last to have any information that might put Cart in a bad light. Unfortunately, there is no one good source for Cart news on the internet.

[R]

This track seemed a little too dangerous, so I think it was a good decision to cancel.

Cart.com just reported that "warmup was on hold". Though I think their "live timing" is a great service, the fact that they're not bringing such important news as the cancellation of a race puts the entire site in disrepute IMO. 7th gear is a lot better updated.

[Heeltoe6]

Good call by CART to cancel, they're going to take a lot of flak for it, but it's better than an injured, or dead, driver or spectator

[Jay]

I haven't thought much of Cart.com, since last year when they treated the deaths of Gonzalo Rodriguez and Greg Moore as if they were little side notes to a great championship battle.

7th Gear isn't that bad, but they still do not provide anywhere near the coverage that the F1 sites do.

[Liz]

Well, after seeing and hearing what ESPN put on (or 1/2 hour of it anyway until TSN cut to golf - for a change), I am amazed that they took as long as they did to decide to cancel. With veteran pilots saying they had never experienced anything like that in their lives, and the explanation of the flight surgeon as to what these g-forces were really doing to the guys ... and hearing them describe the effects personally ... my question is why it took so long to find this out. And who were the computer guys who said these cars would go more slowly than IRL cars? Are these guys the same ones working up the hysteria on Global Warming (so-called)? Parker seemed to think they had neglected to factor in the effect of "tow" - I think they just had no idea in the world that Champ Cars are different from IRL cars. Or they were guessing.

I think it was great politics to bring out two of the three American drivers to support the decision. This may save TMS from a lot of grief. If Mikey doesn't want to race there, then maybe it's not safe after all.

Alessandro said it best, I think, "It's nice that this time Business didn't win out."

I have no doubt that lives were saved by this decision.

[WoodyTJ]

Turned on Europsort and was dissapointed but I think they have made the right decision to cancel it!

Did they not test before hand? Will it be re-run later in the year perhaps?

Such a hugh amount of publicy and money lost! Hope this doesn't at Rockingham!!!

[Speed Demon]

Glad it isn't going ahead - it seemed like the most monumentally stupid idea in the first place. Might as well race at Talledega...

Mind you, the IRL boys could make quite a big deal over this if CART isn't careful. Essentially, the drivers didn't race because they got dizzy on an oval circuit. Put like that, it sounds like they are a bunch of wimps, unlike the IRL drivers who have already raced at Texas and other high banked ovals.

As long as the Andrettis, Vassers and Fittipaldis of CART are seen to back the cancellation, CART will be ok, but it certainly is a small victory for IRL.

[wodonnell]

Surely its a small victory for CART over IRL and not the other way around?

CART can claim that their cars were too fast for the circuit!

Does Texas have an infield circuit? If so then why don't the cars come back later and use that. AFAIK CART doesn't run on any of the infield road circuits at oval facilities. It would make a nice change and Texas would get its race back.

Perfect call by CART to not run the race but it will no doubt count against them as far as IRL/F1 supporters are concerned.

So far they have only run half of the scheduled races this season which doesn't look too good to outsiders.

[Speed Demon]

Well yes, to the true CART fan, it is a victory for the series (or at the very least, the drivers). However, certain branches of the media may well claim otherwise.

But I hardly think CART should be applauded for cancelling a race that should never have been scheduled in the first place. Wally Dallenbach inspected the track when it was first built and concluded it was unsuitable for CART racing. Sadly, the lure of the Texas marketplace proved too strong and CART lost all common sense.

[Liz]

I will agree with that sentiment. Who gave the OK to this track, Rahal or the current administration?

[ma]

The drivers were pulling rather incredible g loads for most of every lap - sustained verticals of 4.5 g's, and 5.0 lateral, with shorter spans of up around 6.3 g's. At 4.5 and 5.0, that equates to a combined load of 6.7 g's for 18 seconds straight! We're talking flight suit territory here! Even the best trained Navy "top guns" can't withstand those stresses.

Congrats to CART for doing the right thing by pulling the plug.

[Jay]

While I agree with Carts decision fully, as I have had a bad feeling about this race for a while now, I smell a big lawsuit. Cart had a contract to race at Texas Motorspeedway, and they could not. Tickets were sold, the track was upgraded, all for nothing. Someone's going to have to pay...

[cascarwilly]

I am a NASCAR fan that recently started watching CART. The sport is great and all, but they keep shooting themselves in the foot. First, I just got home from seeing Driven (enough said), following a cancellation of the CART race earlier today!
While I'm not faulting CART for cancelling the race because the drivers were in danger, I will ask one thing - COULD THIS NOT HAVE BEEN FIGURED OUT EARLIER.
Eddie Gossage the GM of Texas claimes no fault, nor should any be blamed on them at all. CART signed the deal last year on July 11th, and as Mr. Gossage said, there were plenty of oppertunities to test in August, September and October while the weather was warm.
Don't blame Texas, just smear another mark against the planning and preperation of CART!

[Raoul Duke]

What I don't get is the fact that Michigan and Fontana are much faster speedways then Texas. And Cart has no troubles running there. And doesn't IRL run at Texas every year as well?.

[Liz]

As I understand it, Fontana and Michigan have six degree banks and Texas has 24. That is a significant difference. And the Champ Cars are significantly faster than the IRL cars, especially in packs with the "tow factor" figured in, which for some reason was seriously underestimated by the computer models that predicted that they will actually go more slowly than the IRL cars! This has NEVER been the case and I am at a loss to understand it.

There is an infield track at Texas and it is possible they will run a road race there, from what I hear, which would avoid the lawsuit perhaps. But some settlement will have to be made, and to my mind it is worth it.

The difficulty with testing in July August et al. is that Champ Cars happen to hold races in those months. (They are in Toronto in July, for example). And Champ Car rules allow limited or no testing during weeks when there are races.

I'd have sent a selection of drivers out there to test together though: Bruno, Dario, Our Paul, Mikey, Moreno and Garcia Jr. would be my choices. Put them out on the track together and run them for 30 laps and then you'd know. It was no use sending Kenny Brack as he only ran a few laps and had run on the track before in the IRL. And apparently sending the cars one at a time did not give the right input, and sending only veteran pilots is not useful either because the ones that are going to cause the problems are the rookies and the backmarkers. If I can figure this out, why could not CART?

P.S. Did any of you see Drivel? Could you tell me what you honestly thought?

[Crash Test]

1. 233mph- That is incredible, especially for a 1.5 mile oval...

2. The guy from Texas says that he has a contract for CART to race on that date, on the oval, period. They would not get anywhere near the crowd for the oval race at a road course race. I think CART will wind up paying big time for this in compensation...

[kuchi]

I think postponing the race was the right call. I can't imagine what would've happened if a driver riding the car at 230+mph gets dizzy, and feels vertigo, he can pass out for a moment, imagine the consecuences, many could get hurt. They interviewed a medical expert from the NASA, he said pilots experience the same g-forces for as much as 10 minutes, CART drivers has to get through them for almost 3 hours, they could'nt do it. The feeling of that 24 degree banking at the speeds they were reaching is the same feeling of a pilot turning left in an f-16, and sometimes these pilots report they've lost the horizon. It was the right choice by the drivers, I totally agree.

[KC]

The situation at Texas was only aggravated by the speeds. During the US telecast (don't know if the international telecast had it) they had a United States Air Force Flight Surgeon on to speak about the g-forces the drivers were experiencing. The doctor was a veteran F16 pilot and is scheduled to make the next Space Shuttle flight. He said that based on the cornering forces and amount of time in the corners, the drivers were experiencing what pilots call gray-out, where so much blood has left the brain that the eyes begin to lose out. He said that first color begins to go and the world begins to appear black and white, then tunnel vision develops and the eyes become focused on just what is in front of the them, and then he said that it becomes darker and darker until unconsciouness occurs. All of the CART tracks are low banking considering the amount used at some NASCAR venues. Instead of being pushed sideways into the seat and the blood pooling along the drivers right side, the blood was pooling in the legs and lower torso. The brain compensates by ordering an increase in blood pressure from the heart and starts shutting down the steady blood flow to ancillary organs to keep the brain fed. the eyes are one of the last to go, but eventually they do. The CART drivers were experiencing between 5 and 6 g's of force for 80% of the lap. the body never has a chance to catch up and get blood dispersed to the parts is was draining from and the debt gets too large pretty quickly.

He said that 6 g's of force are not enough to kill, but it was too much to constantly absorb and remain able to perform. He said that fighter pilots regularly exceed this, but for very short periods of time. The pilots also have the benefit of a pressurized suit that actually helps squeeze the blood back up the body and maintain some blood to the brain.

I can't blame Joe Heitzler for this latest fiasco. He is not a racing person, he is just echoing the owners and board members who said that it would be no problem. Very few teams went to TMS and tested and the ones that did most likely kept their vertigo problems quiet. The biggest fear of any driver is that they appear to be unable to perform. Eddie Gossage and Bruton Smith have a right to be angry at CART for waiting until the 11th hour to voice their problems. It shows a certain lack of professsionalism on behalf of CART that they buried their heads in the sand on this hoping the drivers would just get on with it. Without some saner heads taking control, we might be talking about another racer being killed this weekend.