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

Bad wreck at the start of the IndyCar race at Pocono, and they’re very carefully not reporting on the status of injured driver Robert Wickens, who got airborne.

 

Jesus, that was bad.

(Also, they may want to avoid talking about how the key to a 500 mile race is "Survival!" as they show the medical helicopter taking off.)

 

Curt Cavins just told the media that Wickens was awake and alert prior to being airlifted to the hospital.

 

Update:

 

I was DVR'ing the race while watching the Blue Jays gets embarrassed in the Bronx and when I came on here and saw new posts on this thread - knowing F1 is still on holiday - shortly after the start of the race I knew it couldn't be good news.

 

Indeed. Just an awful wreck. Too aggressive, too early between RHR and Wickens. I'm just glad Wickens' car didn't rotate 90 degrees more, because then we could have easily had a repeat of the Dan Wheldon wreck.

 

Because sometimes this thread needs to be bumped up for something good …

Australia, which hasn’t had a top-level domestic open-wheel series for decades, is slated to see the return of what is essentially a modernized Formula 5000 in 2019.

‘Australia's version of IndyCar’ to launch in 2019

 

OK, this made me laugh. Did you hear about the Colts announcer who was fired for telling a black co-worker a story that involved someone using the n-word? So, the person who used the n-word 30 years ago in that story was Derek Daly, who has now been fired from his freelance gig in Indy.

https://deadspin.com/former-colts-announcer-who-used-n-word-was-quoting-auto-1828557737

By the way, Derek Daly is the worst racing analyst I have ever heard. I know far more about F1 than he does and he fucking raced in it for five years.

 

And Daly's explanation for the comment actually seemed to be pretty legit. Yeah, tough way to go... but lord, he was awful.

Did give us one of the all-time action photos, though.