[63Banshee]

Originally Posted by MikeNoun

Yes, this has been discussed before.

In 1994, when we lost Ayrton Senna in a tragic crash, Formula 1 redesigned their tracks, and safety was of prime concern. But back in the 1980's and earlier, deaths were common. Jackie Stewart said that he stood a 1 in 4 chance he would be killed if he continued to race. Not very good odds.

All race orgs have gone thru changes. If there was a statistical view of each based on safety upgrades I bet the odds of each would be within the margin of error. 150+ to 0 in under a second is death regardless.

[63Banshee]

Originally Posted by David Holmberg

I heard that Danica is waiting for Brett Bodine to retire so she can drive the pace car. Oddly, the same cars a lap down would still get to pass her every caution, girl can't catch a break.

That's funny right there.

[KS circutguy]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Dale Earnhardt would like a word with you.

K

No comparison to today's so called "racing".

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by David Holmberg

I heard that Danica is waiting for Brett Bodine to retire so she can drive the pace car. Oddly, the same cars a lap down would still get to pass her every caution,girl can't catch a break.

Originally Posted by 63Banshee

That's funny right there.

Xs2 Banshee! Thxs for the laugh Dave.

[MikeNoun]

Yes, but there's a difference in the ratios between deaths in Formula 1 verses NASCAR.

Up until the early 1970's, NASCAR ran a 48 race schedule (now around 36 races a year), not including the Busch/Nationwide Series (often counted in NASCAR death statistics), meaning they raced around 100 races per year. Each of those races had 40+ cars starting.

Formula 1 ran an 11-12 race schedule (only around 16-18 races a year now). Each of those races had around 14-18 cars starting.

So the rate at which Formula 1 drivers were killed was much higher than that of NASCAR, which is why Jackie Stewart made the correct comment that he had a 1 in 4 chance of surviving if he continued in Formula 1.

Unfortunately, it took NASCAR and F1 many decades to finally address driver safety. As with many of the racing series, the death (or severe injury) of a major star brings forth new safety regulations.

[KS circutguy]

Concur

[MikeNoun]

Jackie Stewart was an advocate for safety, and he was appalled at how little Formula 1 seemed to care about their drivers. Colin Chapman (Lotus designer and owner) was one of those guys that believed that a driver must drive his cars, and never criticize them. Some of the Lotus cars in the 1960's were known for having wings snap off or an a-arm break, especially at tough tracks like Nurburgring. Winning was everything.

During Jackie Stewart's F1 career, an F1 driver who raced for five years had a two-thirds (66%) chance of being killed in a crash.

Between 1960-1978, a staggering 26 drivers were killed in Grand Prix's. Considering they only ran an 11 to 17 race schedule (depending on year), that's an appalling number.

In those same years, 14 NASCAR drivers lost their lives. That's running around 2-3 times more races per year than F1, and a typical NASCAR field has approximately 2-3 times more cars per race (depending on eras).

Both extremely dangerous sports, and thankfully, both series have installed many safety features to stop the insanity of the 1960's and 1970's.

And I still miss Dale Earnhardt.

Now back to our All-Danica broadcast...

[arbys]

Good point. Don't forget that many spectators were killed in that era also.

[ken73]

SHR pre-meeting for Richmond. "Danica-- Go out there and get us another top 35 finish".

[David Holmberg]

Originally Posted by ken73

SHR pre-meeting for Richmond. "Danica-- Go out there and get us another top 35 finish".

LOL!

Harvick runs top 5 unless he breaks or wrecks.
Busch runs top 10 until he breaks or wrecks.
Tony, Tony is a mystery this year. Many drivers lost a little aggressiveness after a serious wreck, I hope that's not the case with Tony.
Danica runs mid 20's with a great consistency. We know her equipment is top notch, so I suspect that's the limit of her talent in a stock car.

I think Mike or Kenny Wallace or even Joe "Needmorecheck" would be a consistent top 15 finisher with the same equipment.

[PonchoV8]

Voice of sports announcer on King Richard's farewell tour: Richard Petty was involved in this one...

[Sirrotica]

David, I doubt Tony is being affected by his sprint car accident and resulting injuries. Before his wreck he was asked many times by media members if he worried about wrecking during his extracurricular racing sprint cars and his reply was that he's rolled over before and running open wheel cars rollovers are part of the territory of driving that type of car. He sighted that almost everyone that has any amount of seat time in open wheeled cars has been upside down more than once, which is totally true especially in sprints winged or without wings.

His runs as of this year are either he's really fast and able to drive a dominating race, or he's out in left field as far as car handling goes. I attribute this to his cars and what his crew chief is giving him to drive and not having enough adjustability at the beginning of the race, and/or not keeping up with track changes. Changing crew chiefs 3 times in 4 years is not the optimum way to win races. And throwing in a new type car this year that doesn't respond to the same changes as the last car there are 2 learning curves. One for the new design car and another to a new crew chief that came from Waltrips team. Any MWR crew chief would not have been my first choice.

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by ken73

SHR pre-meeting for Richmond. "Danica-- Go out there and get us another top 35 finish".

Thank You Sir!

[KS circutguy]

Yep,worry not she will, and LOL all the way to the bank.

[The Champ]

Originally Posted by KS circutguy

Yep,worry not she will, and LOL all the way to the bank.

Whores laugh at their John's the same way - at least they do as long as they can do "it".

Danica's days are numbered in the sport of racing.

[MikeNoun]

Stewart enjoys the money flowing in from Danica's backers, which are GoDaddy, Peak, Aspen Dental, and Tissot Watches.

Aside from those, she's also sponsoring:

Can-Am Spyders (three-wheeled motorcycles)
Alpinestars (clothing)
Coke Zero
Ideal Image (Ladies Hair Removal)
Revo Sunglasses
Nationwide Insurance
Schuberth Helmets
Troy Lee Designs (custom painted helmets)

I highly doubt she's be tapped to promote the Bondurant School of High Perf Driving.

Even less likely would be a sponsorship from the Richard Petty Driving Experience.

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by The Champ

Whores laugh at their John's the same way - at least they do as long as they can do "it".

Danica's days are numbered in the sport of racing.

Originally Posted by MikeNoun

Stewart enjoys the money flowing in from Danica's backers, which are GoDaddy, Peak, Aspen Dental, and Tissot Watches.

Aside from those, she's also sponsoring:

Can-Am Spyders (three-wheeled motorcycles)
Alpinestars (clothing)
Coke Zero
Ideal Image (Ladies Hair Removal)
Revo Sunglasses
Nationwide Insurance
Schuberth Helmets
Troy Lee Designs (custom painted helmets)

I highly doubt she's be tapped to promote the Bondurant School of High Perf Driving.

Even less likely would be a sponsorship from the Richard Petty Driving Experience.

Now these posts are funny and right on target. Thanks guys!

[KS circutguy]

She sure looks hot in this picture driving a real race car.lol

[The Champ]

Originally Posted by KS circutguy

She sure looks hot in this picture driving a real race car.lol

If you mean "hot" as on a "hot" day - I agree...

As far as a "real" race car - that's a matter of opinion that we will just have to agree to disagree.

I like my racing door to door/nose to tail. Indy cars can't even do that on a restart...



The tail ender is probably a mile behind the leader when the green flag waves - and at most they only have 33 cars on the track.

[MikeNoun]

Champ, I know we've been through this before, but again, the reason they don't do double-file restarts in IndyCar or F1 is because it's too dangerous.

When open wheel cars touch wheels, bad things happen. When IndyCars or F1 cars get airborne, there's a good chance of a death, or at the very least a severe career ending injury, like what happened to Dario Franchitti last year.

If it wasn't for single file restarts, there would probably be 1 or 2 deaths (or career ending injuries) per year in those two racing series.

Godspeed to Danny Wheldon, he was a cool guy and a great driver.