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Well, that's better than what I was expecting.

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Tony Stewart sent his jet to take Justin's family to Allentown.

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Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

How is it better? Same was said about Bianchi's condition at first. Let's hope that this has better outcome.

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"Indy doesn't give you a second chance. You have to earn it."

I hope that doesn't come across as callous... First, thoughts and prayers to Justin.

Second, up to that crash, this was a very good race. Shame it ended under yellow, but from where we were sitting it was a helluva show.

An awful end to an otherwise pretty great race. I hope that Justin pulls through.

Terrible news. I went to bed just before the crash. Hopefully it's not life threatning and he makes a speedy recovery.

About open-cockpit racing...there are enough different types of closed cockpit racing series. No reason to convert F4/FF/F3/F1/Radical sportscars/Super Formula/IndyCar/Hillclimbing into prototype cars.

The driver's head is already so deep into high cockpits that you can barely see it.

The whole purpose of single seaters was to get to see the driver in action. That purpose stopped being a reality at around mid-90s when headrests and then HANS appeared.

I used to love exposed cockpits, but I know it's not acceptable in our times. At this point, where you can barely see the head tilting and steering wheel moving from outside, just go and cover them up fully to remove this final risk.

This race is a goddamned methaphor for life. You cruise around, all excited, thinking enjoyment will last forever. Some incidents happen here and there but no big deal, you get back on and keep finding new things to be excited about. Then finally, just when you think you've got it all figured out, various things happen for no reason, tragedy strikes, and you realise there's very few laps left. You end up pacing at crawl speed towards a bitter ending, only now fully realising that half of the people you ever knew already retired from the race.

Worst thing we can do now is start speculating, but still, I find in worrying that I haven't read anywhere that had surgery. Remember Felipe, Da Matta, they were both in surgery within the hour. I'm not a doctor, but I find this a bit unsettling. Hope for good news.

Damn, terrible accident.

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remembering Jeff Krosnoff
>>>>>> 1964 - 1996 <<<<<<

I did see someone who is friends on Facebook with Paul Tracy on his personal page say that Paul said there was a successful surgery. Whatever that may mean.

so you know someone who knows someone who said something because he heard it from someone...

That's really sad news. I missed the end of the race and just hoped for a good clean finish because it had been a fun race. We saw in qualifying that a big incident is always possible, but I never expected to see something like this. Thoughts are with Justin and the family.


I don't like the look of closed cockpits but they could have prevented several serious injuries and deaths. People keep saying that you can get stuck if the car is upside down and on fire, but how often does that happen? Would you rather be in fireproof overalls, knowing that the safety crew should be there to extinguish the flames in a matter of seconds, or take your chances with a wheel flying at your head?

I don't know if closed cockpits are the answer, but it's hard to argue that they'd be less safe.

Of all the shitty luck. Kimball almost goes through the fence on Saturday and there are multiple big impacts on race day yet Wilson gets this from a bouncing piece of debris while everyone else walks away.

Formulas do change; at one time unlimited hydroplane boats were open cockpit, they migrated in the late 1980s to F-16 style canopies and the safety improved quite a bit. NHRA top fuel likewise has optional canopies now.

There are downsides to canopies; ultimately, I feel that the actual drivers / crew chiefs / owners would be in the best position to decide. The canopies in both NHRA and unlimited hydro were championed by people within the sport. In contrast I believe the FIA looked into the canopy concept after Massa's crash but the FIA and teams ultimately rejected it. Not every idea works...

Just goes to show that open cockpits are lagging a very long way behind in terms of safety.

In NASCAR, who was it that got hit by lead weights that had come out of another car? They were able to drive back to the pits, in an open cockpit they probably wouldn't be here now. Open cockpits are what's holding back safety. Yell all you want about tradition, safety is paramount on ovals.

Come to think of it, all the 500s had big amount of close calls this year. Hinch and Briscoe got the worst of it, until Justin, which was a freak accident.

During the last few years there's been few accidents where drivers' got hit from a debris in open wheel racing. Surtees, Massa, Hinchcliffe and Wilson. But I can't remember any from the 90s -80s. There's then Tom Pryce and Spa 1960 that had consequence due open cockpit formula.

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"Indy doesn't give you a second chance. You have to earn it."

Max Papis made that point on Twitter last night. Maybe we've just been lucky.

I remember Mark Blundell saying he'd been hit on the head by a wheel during the US 500 pile up in '96.

Yea, there were a few close calls in the 90's as well. first that comes to mind is Gil De Ferran, with Zanardi's tyre at Michigan, that broke the endplate off the rear wing.

Of course Senna is probably the best-known F1 example, but Brundle also took an (attached) wheel to the head.

I think this will be the beginning of the end for top flight open-cockpit racing as we know it. Much like the way Stewart's views eventually came to be accepted, and how NASCAR changed, I think the insistence on keeping with tradition is going to give way to keeping drivers from being killed in freak accidents.