All-purpose open-wheel (F1, IRL) racing thread

If this means I will not have to hear anyone say "The Mayor of Hinchtown" this month, I'm totally good with his failure to qualify.

 

He would be great on TV, I can't stand Cheever. Don't mind Goodyear, a guy I cheered for in his racing days.

 

With as much crap (ABC probably considers it good-natured ribbing) as he's taken on air about losing the 1992 500 (especially when Cheever's win with Rachel Potato Chips was during the asterisk era), my dream scenario is for Goodyear to hit both Eddie and Allen Bestwick smack in the face with a tire iron at the end of Sunday's broadcast.

 

The Indy Star decided to go ghoulish and morbid today. Not one, but two stories about horrific deaths at the speedway, one on driver Pat O'Connor, the other on fan Kyle Kurtenbach.

A.J. Foyt: Scar never healed after seeing friend die in horrific crash at 1958 Indy 500

https://www.indystar.com/story/spor...ills-your-husband-indianapolis-500/626173002/

Really? Does not having someone land in the hospital with life-threatening injuries during qualifying constitute a slow news day during Indy 500 week? Seems like there's a ton of possible sidebars, analysis and features about the upcoming race rather than literally digging into the morgue.

I sort of get the 60th anniversary of the O'Connor accident, but do you really have to go into detail about the burning body to make your point? To be honest, it's not even in the top 10 of gruesomest crashes at that place. Dave McDonald and Eddie Sachs in 1964 would be right up there. Salt Walther's feet dangling out of the car on the start in 1973. Swede Savage later in the same race. Stan Fox in 1995. Does anybody who saw Gordon Smiley's head-on with the Turn 3 wall really want to relive that moment? And Tony Renna's body supposedly went THROUGH the catch fence during tire testing. Can't wait for the interview with the guys who came upon that scene.

But the "when a tire kills your husband" piece is the one that confounds me, other than sheer journalistic voyeurism. What assignment editor says, "Hey, let's go find the widow of the guy who took a race tire to the face at 200 mph!" I'm thoroughly enticed by the upcoming series, which hopefully will include Eldon Palmer crashing the pace car into the photographer's stand in 1971, those killed when the homemade scaffolding collapsed in 1960, and especially the carnage at the IRL race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

There's got to be a tagline for it: A holiday takes death, or window into widowhood.

 

Goodyear should go totally heel at the end, a la another great Canadian, Chris Jericho

 

Race day.

Where is everybody?

 

Good morning, race fans. I somehow got assigned to be lector at the 9 a.m. service, but that should still get me home in plenty of time to have IMS Radio Network and the timing and scoring on the computer, while watching ABC (with the sound OFF).

Forecast high in Indianapolis: 92. That could vie with 1952 for the hottest race temperature ever (Carl Scarborough died of heat exhaustion during that race). Prepare adequately with plenty of cold beverages, sunscreen and head covering.

Safe travels for everyone involved: Drivers, crews and fans.

Wish I was there. But I will be in spirit.

 

That’s nuts. It’s hard for anyone under the age of 50 to know how dangerous it was out there.

 

Just watching a lap at Monaco through the in-car cam is exhausting.