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In that case the G-Force chassis must have been even worse then, because from what I understand Renna just spun and caught a little of the grass before flying across the track and well up into the fence. At least in the Dallara accidents we've seen there's been a little more stimulus for take-off than a simple spin.

According to CNN the IndyCar Series claimed 7 lives in the past 15 years.

That three of those happened in another championship doesn't matter.

Brayton, the 3 spectators at Charlotte, Renna, Dana, Wheldon. It isn't that wrong tbh. Then if you discount the spectators and count Krosnoff, Moore and Rodriguez you get 7 again. Then there are the spectators at Michigan that must not be forgotten either.

Well, well. The devastation from Sunday have left very eager to see the progress that Indycar will make. It is good to hear people like Miller, Andretti and Foyt are very rational about the situation.

Whether it is insensitive or not, spectators, mechanics, marshals and other officials are never counted in these sort of things. The last death people talk about in Formula One is Ayrton Senna. In reality we've had 2 or 3 (possibly more, my memory is pretty bad for this stuff) marshals killed.

"Racing on this sort of track is too fast and too close," Power told Triple M radio in Sydney. "When you are averaging 370 km/h and you are inches apart... It was a recipe for disaster in my mind.

"I had voiced my opinion over the last few years that when we run on these mile-and-a-half super speedways with high banking, it creates this pack racing. It takes one little mistake from someone and the result is never good.

"It is always a hard hit into a wall, it's always a big crash. The formula can be fixed (but) I am sure they will take a pretty close look after what happened."

"I have been running on these ovals for a couple of years now and your worst nightmare is to end up airborne and heading toward the catch fence," he said.

"The catch fence just destroys the car. A lot of guys have had their legs destroyed - there's been some pretty big injuries. So I thought, 'this is it, I am heading towards the catch fence'.

"But the way my car landed ... I hit the road first then went into the wall then I saw a heap of flames and I can't really remember what else. I was lucky. You just have to land the wrong way and it's all bad.

"Unfortunately, Dan ended up on the catch fence and that's what got him. It was a very sad day for IndyCar to lose a guy like Dan, a champion - it's unbelievable."

An Italian marshal was killed by the flying wheel of Pedro de La Rosa at the Turn 2 crash in 2000 at Monza.

That resolves the "cheese grater" factor but does not resolve the posts, which is where things can get quite deadly with blunt trauma. I would also be worried about strength (plexiglass can shatter on blunt impact) and environmental issues (some transparent plastic fogs up under certain conditions).

Some clever engineering is going to be needed for the posts. Ideally, it would be nice if a post could "break away" and dissipate some energy, without flying into the crowd, or having the fence collapse. That sounds like a huge challenge, maybe impossible.

If spectators don't need to view the track, simply mounting some energy dissipating material to the fence (eg foam) would help some. But there aren't a lot of good transparent methods that I know of that would do the same thing.

According to CNN the IndyCar Series claimed 7 lives in the past 15 years.
That three of those happened in another championship doesn't matter.

Thank you AJ and Mario.

I don't defend the IRL and its insistance to run a car with a flat bottom instead of tunnels to suck the car to ground more effectively, but regardless, Johnson being a shill for Nascar and trying to stab a knife into the heart of Indycar's oval traditions barely a day after Wheldons death strikes me as tasteless. Especially when he takes part in the "plate" shows Nascar puts on at superspeedways. Get off your throne and tell the fans that got hurt from flying debris in 2009 when Edwards got into the fence that Nascar isn't still dangerous with pack racing, JJ, you twat.

I appreciate @IndyCar canceling my husband's test at Las Vegas track. The new car needs development - but not now, and never again there.

trippmickle
Versus will air the public memorial service for Dan Wheldon from 4-5 p.m. ET this Sunday. The service is at Indianapolis' Canseco Fieldhouse