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Making changes Wheel tethers, higher fences on their way to Indy Racing League
Posted: Wednesday May 19, 1999 05:28 PM
CONCORD, N.C. (AP) -- Open-wheel racing's latest fatal spectator accident is prompting the Indy Racing League to require wheel tether systems and a top promoter to raise the height of safety fences. Starting at next week's Indianapolis 500, the IRL will make its teams use restraining cables designed to keep wheels from snapping free from the vehicles on impact, The Associated Press learned Tuesday. The IRL's largest promoter, Speedway Motorsports Inc., also announced plans to upgrade the safety fences at its tracks to make them higher than at any other speedways in the United States. The company owns Texas Motor Speedway and four other tracks that are among the 11 where IRL races are staged. Among them is Lowe's Motor Speedway at Charlotte, where three spectators were killed and eight injured by a flying wheel and suspension parts during a race May 1. SMI plans to spend about $1 million to upgrade its safety fences, starting with about 4,000 feet protecting grandstands at Texas Motor Speedway. The track north of Fort Worth is the next SMI venue on the IRL schedule. Wheeler said the upgrades should be finished for the Longhorn 500 on June 12. The fences at most of SMI's properties where IRL races are staged currently stand 15 feet high and are topped with 3-foot-long overhangs. The company said fences in front of spectator viewing areas will be raised to 21 feet and topped with 6-foot-long overhangs. "This is completely overbuilt, but we just don't want this to happen again," SMI president H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler said. "We want to make sure that we're going down the right path with this thing." IRL officials declined to confirm their intentions to require teams to use cables to restrain wheel and suspension assemblies. But three authorities in the open-wheel racing industry, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the AP that the IRL plans to announce the tether rule in the coming days, and put it into effect for the Indy 500. The May 30 race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the first IRL event since the Charlotte accident. The IRL teams are to test the new restraining cables during Carburetion Day on May 27, the final scheduled practice session before the 500. Formula One began requiring its teams to use tether systems at the start of the 1999 season. CART, the world's other major open-wheel circuit, announced a similar mandate last week. Tethers have come under fire from 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 the Charlotte wreck represented the second time in nine months that spectators at major open-wheel races in the United States were killed by wheels and debris that flew over safety fences and into the grandstands. Investigators have not determined exactly how high the wheel flew to clear Charlotte's safety fence. But Wheeler said based on the evidence available to investigators, it would have been unlikely the wheel could get past the new fence and its arched overhang. SMI also plans to upgrade the safety fences at its tracks in Atlanta and Las Vegas, both of which are scheduled for IRL races later this year. An 800-foot section of fence along Charlotte's fourth turn where the fatal accident began is to be upgraded in time for the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR Winston Cup race on May 30. Flying wheels and other parts usually aren't a major problem
with the heavier, slower and sturdier Winston Cup cars. But Wheeler
said SMI still wanted to upgrade Charlotte's fourth-turn fence to
ease fans' concern about the IRL wreck, which produced the first
spectator fatalities in the track's 40-year history.
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