Tire tethers on the way

IRL confirms usage for Indy 500; CART also in line

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Posted: Monday May 24, 1999 05:36 PM

The new changes come just three weeks after the crash at Lowe's Motor Speedway during the Visionaire 500. AP

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The Indy Racing League, following the lead of Formula One and rival Championship Auto Racing Teams, announced Monday that its new wheel energy restraint system will be used in Sunday's Indianapolis 500.

Leo Mehl, executive director of the IRL and a vice president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, said the system designed to keep suspension parts from flying off the open-wheel cars will be installed prior to Thursday's two-hour "Carburetion Day" practice. That will be the only time before the race that all 33 starters will be on the 2 1/2-mile oval.

The announcement of the move to tether the suspension parts to the Indy cars comes just three weeks after three spectators were killed and eight injured by a flying wheel and suspension parts during an IRL race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.

Three spectators were also killed and several others injured last July at Michigan Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich., by a wheel and other debris from a crash during a CART event.

Both of those tracks are high-speed, high-banked ovals.

"We think that this is definitely a step in the right direction," Mehl said. "We're not done with taking more steps to make us more confident on the high banks. We have some more things that we will do."

He added, "I think we're doing everything possible to make it as safe for the fans as it can be. I mean, there isn't a 100 percent guarantee that we're going to walk out there and not get run over."

Each of the three companies that build cars for IRL competition -- Dallara in Italy, G Force in England and Riley & Scott in Indianapolis -- have worked with the league in developing a restraint system suited to its own car design.

"Ultimately, nobody knows more about their race cars than the manufacturers themselves," Mehl said.

CART will debut its new tire tethers -- which will only anchor the front suspensions -- on its cars in Saturday's Motorola 300 in Madison, Ill.

The IRL announcement said all four suspensions on its cars will be attached to the chassis with multiple cables of Zylon -- a space age fiber Mehl said is two times stronger than Kevlar.

"It has a breaking strength of five tons," said Mehl, who added that it's the same material being used by Formula One.

He also pointed out that there is no way to test the effectiveness of the new system under the actual stresses except in the race cars.

"Nobody can test at 200 mph and our cars spend a great deal of their racing life over 200," he said. "A normal crash creates 60 to 80 G's of energy."

Such restraints have been criticized by some industry authorities who say the restraints can yank wheels back toward the car, putting the driver in greater danger. Tethers that snap free also can accelerate the already high speeds at which many wheels fly away from vehicles during crashes.

But Mehl said the IRL believes its system will actually make the drivers safer.

The restraints will not keep the tire itself from flying off in a severe crash, but Phil Casey, technical director for the IRL, said the problems have been caused not by the tire, which is attached to the hub with a locking pin, but by the hub and suspension pieces being sheared off the cars.

The new system is designed to keep those pieces attached to the frame of the cars.

 

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