Increasing Technology Rather Than Reducing Speed Works
Written by Josh Katinger · May 15, 2005
Rookies and veterans alike felt the old familiar sting of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this week. Turn two claimed no less that 4 victims, one of which won’t drive again until Wednesday and one won’t run this year’s edition of the 500.
Last year’s 500 winner Buddy Rice hit the wall hard on Wednesday and won’t be cleared to drive again for at least a week, thus putting him out of contention for the pole position run today (rain postponed from yesterday). Paul Dana’s situation is worse and he will miss the 500 this year with a concussion and fractures to his lower back. Darren Manning and Sam Hornish, who flipped after hitting debris from the Dana wreck, got away with destroyed cars and bruised bodies. I find it interesting that the high speeds and (relatively) minor injuries are due to two new and, in this case, opposing technologies put in place to increase speeds while reducing injuries at the historic speedway.
Diamond Ground Racing Surface
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was resurfaced this winter and the speed and grip of the track come May was a big question mark. Early testing showed a severe lack of grip on the slick new surface. To compensate for this and artificially age the track it was diamond ground.
Diamond grinding is a process where several (about 40) diamond-toothed saw blades are strung together on an axel and used to cut strips of very thin, evenly spaced and shallow grooves along the track in the direction of the racing line (Lowes Motor Speedway underwent this resurfacing process this past Winter as well, with rave reviews for the resultant new surface). A diamond ground surface looks like a more precise version of the grooved turns that we sometimes see on public roads here in the Northeast to give drivers more traction in snow and ice. This process allows a resurfaced speedway to be super smooth and fast, without the one-to-two year in period for the surface to wear in and grip to returns. While the ground track has proven far more “grippy,” that grip takes drivers and engineers towards the envelope and beyond.
SAFER Barrier
While the injuries to Rice will keep him from taking a second consecutive Indy pole, and Dana won’t be able to participate in the race this year, the fact that the injuries to everyone who backed into turn two this week were not more severe is courtesy of the SAFER barrier. This shock and g-force absorbing steel and foam wall system, whose development was purportedly partially funded by Tony George, has greatly reduced the amount of g-force that is transferred from the contact with the wall back into the car and the driver’s body.
Racing fans are accustomed to sanctioning bodies attempting to reduce risk by handicapping cars with aero changes or horsepower reductions. Why not simply continue to balance the technology that increases speed with the technology that saves lives? The sad part is that awareness and adoption of innovations like the SAFER barrier and the HANS device only seem to spread after events like the death of Dale Earnhardt and injuries like those sustained by Sam Schmidt. It pleases me to no end when the unending quest for more speed and the need to keep drivers safe is in balance.
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3 Responses to “Increasing Technology Rather Than Reducing Speed Works”
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The flip experienced by Hornish is due to all the cars eliminating as much wing as possible, front and rear. They are trading down force for top speed.
Until the IRL announces their engine package and allows the chasis mfg.’s to come up with new chasis designs that develop grip with less reliance on wings, we will see more flips in the future. I hope I’m wrong, but I’ve got a bad feeling about this year’s event, safety wise.
“Why not simply continue to balance the technology that increases speed with the technology that saves lives?”
Simple answer in the form of reviewing the tapes of a car nearly entering the crowd at Talladega. An accident that led to the restrictor plates.
Speed is relative. I doubt more than 5% of the population can tell the difference between 225mph and 190mph without a fancy TV produced graphic.
The logical progression of your ligic would lead to 300mph laps at Indy. How many costly safety devices would be needed to protect the drivers?
How high, strong and intrusive to good viewing would the catchfence have to be?
Your premise is sound, better tech plus better safety features. In the end all it would do is drive up the cost for everyone.
I respect your point Marc, but as a member of the 5%, when I tune into Indy…I want to see people putting up big numbers. If I didn’t care about the speeds I’d watch horse racing, or Olympic sprinting…but the fact is that stuff bores me. And I think I speak for the other true racing fans…since there are very few “casual” fans of open wheel racing in the US anymore. As devotees, we want to see the read deal. At Indy, the read deal = SPEED.
When Danica ran a lap of 229 MPH we knew she was the real deal. When I went to Englishtown to see the NHRA and the numbers were below 300 MPH I was disappointed…and you most certainly can tell the different between a 300 MPH run and a 250 MPH run…it is visibly and audibly slower. People watch racing because it’s loud, competitive, sexy, and dangerous…but speed is a critical component. I guess the argument is how much is too much.
Regarding restrictor plates; I think just about everyone but the NASCAR officials agree that restrictor plate racing is a joke…a dangerous joke at that. If NASCAR had implemented the carbon fiber bumper as well as a few other updates to the 1970’s technology that is a Stock Car and removed the restrictor plates you wouldn’t have had the multi-million dollar 25-car wreck in the turn 1 at Talladega this year. But I guess your point is that you might have had just two cars tangle at 220 MPH and jump into the grand stands. A valid point.
I guess what I was getting at is that there are good, sound technical solutions to a lot of racing problems, but instead of exploring them and moving the sport forward, some series see it more fitting to slap a restrictor on the car and be done with it.