Superspeedway planning no increase in safety measures

   Copyright c 1998 Nando Media
   Copyright c 1998 Associated Press

BROOKLYN, Mich. (Jul 28, 1998 - 2:05 EDT) -- Race car drivers are always in
danger. Spectators aren't supposed to be.

At Sunday's U.S. 500 Champ car race at Michigan Speedway, three fans were
killed and six others were injured by a tire and other debris that hurtled
into the crowd after a seemingly routine one-car crash.

While these were not the first fan deaths, it was the worst accident ever
at a major U.S. superspeedway.

In interviews Monday, racing officials underscored the safety of their
tracks and stressed how unusual the accident was.

Andrew Craig, president and CEO of Championship Auto Racing Teams, which
sanctioned the U.S. 500, said it was too early to say whether any changes
are warranted at the track.

"With any accident as tragic as this, we always look at structural
factors," he said. "This is a very well-constructed race track. I
would say this is one of the best racing facilities in America."

Michigan Speedway president Gene Haskett said he would meet with his
facilities superintendent to check safety issues.

"We're definitely going to review it and determine what we can
possibly do to make sure nothing like this every happens again," he
said. "But I want to point out again that in the 31-year history of
this oval, this is the first incident of this type.

"I've researched it and you have to go back five years even to find a
minor incident in which a woman got a slight scratch on her arm from
something that that came off some vehicle," Haskett said. "What
happened Sunday was a fluke situation."

Driver Adrian Fernandez suffered only bruised knees when he lost control of
his car and it slammed into the fourth-turn wall. But the right front tire
sailed over a 4-foot-high wall and an 11-foot-high catch fence into the
crowd.

That 15-foot clearance is common at tracks throughout the world, and making
the fence higher might not be the answer.

During the 1987 Indianapolis 500, a tire came off one car and was struck by
another, sending it soaring. It hit a man in the top row of an 80-foot-high
grandstand, killing him instantly.

On NASCAR's Winston Cup circuit, stock cars sometimes spray parts and
pieces into the stands during particularly violent crashes.

Mike Helton, NASCAR's vice president for competition, said safety was the
top issue for all racing circuits -- "whether it's the drivers, other
participants, spectators, whoever."

"Obviously, it's not possible to cover every scenario that can cause
tragedies to occur," he said. "Every now and then a weird set of
circumstances comes together and something like this can happen. What you
can do is learn from that and make any changes that can keep it from
happening again."

NASCAR has two Winston Cup races and one Busch Series race on the Michigan
track each year, and Helton said his circuit is interested in seeing the
results of the safety review.

In 1987, when NASCAR engines were unrestricted and stock car speeds had
climbed above 210 mph, Bobby Allison's car nearly sailed into the stands on
the main straightaway at Talladega Superspeedway.

A 100-foot stretch of safety fencing was sheared away in the accident.
Amazingly, the car bounced back onto the track. The most serious injury was
to a woman who lost an eye after being hit by a piece of debris.

That prompted Talladega officials to rebuild the catch fence around the
entire track, using stronger cables. It also prompted NASCAR to require
carburetor restrictor plates on the cars to slow them down at its two
fastest speedways, Talladega and Daytona.

The plates still are required and stock cars speeds have remained under 200
mph. Still, at the Winston Cup race in April, the hood from a crashing car
sailed into the crowd and severed a spectator's hand.

In the two open-wheel series, CART and the Indy Racing League, drivers warm
up at speeds above 200. Despite efforts to slow the sleek racing machines
down, both series regularly record laps above 220 mph.

Although a car from any of the professional series could fly into a
grandstand, the biggest danger for spectators comes from the way the
vehicles come apart when they hit a wall or each other.

Engineers have found that making the cars virtually explode on impact, with
pieces flying everywhere, pulls G-forces away from drivers, who are kept
safer within a tub or cockpit area. But that debris can easily fly into
nearby stands.

At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, there is a 19-foot-tall fence, with a
3-foot wall on the main stretch and 3 1/2-foot wall on the rest of the
track, said Mai Lindstrom, a spokeswoman for the speedway and the IRL.

"Just generally, we take every reasonable precaution to contain
debris. Of course, when you have cars traveling 200 mph on a race course,
it's impossible to anticipate everything that could possibly happen."

Referring to IRL facilities in general, she said: "Obviously, we don't
go to any track where we don't believe there is a pretty high level of
safety for everyone involved. No car would ever turn a wheel if we didn't
believe the track was safe."

First-time spectator David Thompson of Spring Arbor, Mich., had a
too-close-for-comfort view of Sunday's crash. His wife, Joyce, sitting
beside him, was struck in the leg by the hurtling tire, and she was treated
at a hospital and released.

"It will be a while before we go again. But it's one of those freak
things ... It can happen to anyone. Once in a while, it can happen to
you," he said.

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