(Warning: This article contains video where people were either killed or seriously injured. Viewer discretion is advised)
As time passes, hopefully the memory of Indy car driver Justin Wilson does not. Wilson, a 37-year-old British racer died on August 23 at Pocono Raceway after being struck in the head by debris from another driver. He left behind a wife and two daughters.
Wilson got his start in Formula 1 and then moved to the United States to compete in Champ car before moving to Indy car in 2008. Wilson was known as the gentle giant of the sport, in reference to his tall stature and laid back personality. Wilson is now the latest driver to be killed in a race, and it brings up the question: Do people forget that Auto Racing is one of the most dangerous things someone can do?
Allow me to explain. Auto Racing is in fact the most dangerous sport in the world. There is no bias towards who is taken from this planet in auto racing, there is no bias towards which form of racing is the deadliest, and there is no bias whether it is professional or amateur racing. Racing has no bias on who fails in the relationship between man and machine.
Let’s examine and look at how dangerous racing can be.
Faster Car vs. Slower Driver
The whole concept of racing is to be the fastest on the track. But racing also pushes the boundaries of car safety and technology. For example here is British driver, Allen McNish, taking part in the 2011 24-Hours of Le Mans in France. The Audi R18 TDI McNish was driving had a prototype safety cockpit on board made from carbon fiber. The cockpit was put to the test when McNish’s Audi collided with a slower Ferrari, and sent the Audi into the tire barrier at a high rate of speed. Luckily, Mcnish walked away.
In 2012, during the same race, Toyota Racing driver Anthony Davidson had a similar incident with a Ferrari, causing his car to go airborne. The Toyota was running a similar cockpit to Audi, and Davidson, thankfully, escaped this horrific crash with only a broken back.
Even Racing’s Greatest Heroes Can’t Escape Tragedy
The two most popular forms of racing around the world are NASCAR and Formula 1. Their drivers are some of the highest paid and most popular athletes in the world. Coverage of their races is some of the highest-rated TV anywhere. As a result, cameras are everywhere to capture every inch of the action. So when a driver does lose that battle, it can change the sport forever.
For NASCAR, it was the death of Dale Earnhardt, Sr., that change the sport forever. It was the 2001 Daytona 500, NASCAR’s Super Bowl, and on the final turn of the final lap, when Earnhardt struck the wall and was killed. But what set Earnhardt’s crash apart from others is that it didn’t initially look like that hard of a crash.
Plenty of times before fans had seen crashes in NASCAR where the car had flipped over numerous times, and the driver had walked out. Earnhardt’s was tame by comparison. In reality, Dale Sr. broke his neck in the accident and died shortly thereafter. NASCAR lost its Superman.
Formula 1 lost its Superman in 1994, in another seemingly routine accident during the Italian Grand Prix. For those who don’t know, Senna was easily the most popular driver in the world at the time of his death. A humanitarian in his native country, Brazil, and feared and respected by his competitors, Senna was the driver of his generation and his death sent shockwaves around the world.
But to show just how much skill Senna had, here is a clip of him during the Monaco Grand Prix. Tell me this guy wasn’t awesome.
Racing is also dangerous for spectators.
Seeing a race in person is completely different than seeing one on TV. In person, you get a sense of the speed and danger, as cars fly by at speeds around 200mph. But as spectators, you are only inches from that danger, and one wrong move by a driver can have a catastrophic result.
The most deadly racing accident of all time occurred in 1955 at the 24-Hours of Le Mans. Pierre Levegh's Mercedes flew into the crowd and caught on fire. As a result, 55 people, including Levegh himself, died.
The catch fence was quickly implemented afterwards, and has been saving the lives of spectators and drivers ever since. In 2009, during the spring NASCAR race at Talladega, Carl Edwards famously flew into the catch fence. Edwards walked away.
This past July at Daytona, a similar accident occurred involving Austin Dillon. Dillon again walked away and no spectators were hurt.
Both of these crashes show just how dangerous racing can be, but it also shows just how far safety advances have come.
What is the Moral of the Story?
Anyone who says racing is boring and that race car drivers are not athletes is full of crap. Racing is one of the best spectacles in the world. Seeing man wrestling a machine for three hours at speeds near 200mph is something that deserves to be cherished and cheered for.
As for the drivers, they are so much more than athletes. Understand this: they are sitting inside a closed-cockpit car for three to five hours, driving at 200mph. The level of concentration that is needed to do that is extraordinary. Further still, they are going against other drivers and corners, and still need to keep a high level of concentration.
Their “uniforms” are not there to identify what team they're on. Their helmet and suit is there so they don’t catch on fire and so they have a chance to survive accidents. If you don’t get that, hopefully you can at least appreciate racing in the future.
As Steve McQueen said, “Racing is life, anything that happens before or after is just waiting."
Now here is a puppy video to lift your mood:
