dlq04

I don't know how many of you had a chance to see the flying race car wreck at MIS yesterday on ESPN Classic of all channels but it was like OMG!! If you didn't see it, you might try looking for the highlights of yesterday's race. Cars landing upside down on cars and everyone walked away, thank goodness.

Keith

Typical IRL race... cars flipping.

Keith

dlq04

Yah, right.

Keith

No seriously... I can come up with 10 occurrences of IRL cars flipping over in the last 4-5 years... does that sound normal to you?

Keith

dlq04

Wheel-to-wheel contact in open-wheeled race cars will produce wild things and air borne cars is certainly one of them. The close competition at 200+ mph adds to that likelyhood with tight racing and bold moves. Having said all that, Franchitti's spectacular six-car accident was anything but routine.

Keith

Ok but how many Champ Cars and F1 cars do you see flipping. Even when CART was racing on ovals, they wouldn't flip as often as IRL cars.

It bothers me when making contact wheel to wheel give a good chance of flipping on your head or into a fence...

Sure F1 + Champ Cars go airborne too but are you seriously say the occurrences are equal? Ok, let's recap some occurrences...

- 2003 Mario Andretti while shaking down a car for his son for the Indy 500 flies into the air and crash top first -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvuLGyDN16Q

- 2003 Dan Wheldon touches another car and sends the car flying and lands upside down at the Indy 500 ->

- 2003 Kenny Brack makes contact with Tomas Schekter at Texas Motor Speedway sending him into the fence -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2ORmCDb_sM

- 2004 Buddy Rice and Darren Manning at Chicago Speedway make contact and sends Buddy Rice flying upside down -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgwWYKvdBuo

- 2005 Indy 500, Sam Hornish makes contact with a piece of debris from a crash ahead of him sending him upside down -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfuqgsb2L9s


- 2005 at Chicago Speedway where Ryan Briscoe makes contact with another car sending him into the fence -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8q4jA6X1qU

- 2006 Jeff Simmons touches another car on a restart at Motegi and flips -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syIOmggqXNY

- 2007 Indy 500, Marco Andretti and Dan Wheldon make contact flipping his car upside down -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1BFGDu94IA

A lot milder but Marco Andretti flipping at Mid Ohio this year ->

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRy5Q9tLNdU
- 2007 Dario Franchitti touches Scott Dixon and sends him into the air at MIS -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3NO_zYCvb4

And that's why I'm not surprised that ANOTHER IRL car flip over.

Keith

VFROOOM

Get over it, it's a dangerous sport........Roll overs are nothing new to Motorsports.

Similar lists like the one above can be compiled for all series.

mikegarrison

It's not really the wheels touching that launches the car that way. The problem is the aerodynamics. This is the same reason hydroplane boats blow over, and they don't have wheels at all.

The wheels touching just pushes the nose of the car up into the airflow. The least bit of extra air under the front of that flat bottom and the vehicle becomes a frisbee without spin. Try tossing a frisbee that way and see what happens.

Keith

Compile a list of Champ Cars + F1 cars that have flipped over the since 2003.

Keith

mikegarrison

Compile a list of wheel-to-wheel passes since 2003. Oval racing has a lot more chance for something like this to occur. Speeds are higher and there's more side-by-side racing.