Championship Auto Racing Teams

What happen when the race was stopped at Charlotte when the fans were
killed?

Were tickets refunded? Travel expenses?

zzz

Future Trivial Pursuit question:  
What major auto race was held in Indianapolis IN from 1911 to 1995?
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"If you can turn your car, you’re going too slow" – Don "The Snake" Prudhome
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CART wants to reschedule TMS race
Track officials won’t say if they agree

05/02/2001

By Tony Fabrizio / The Dallas Morning News

If CART chief executive officer Joe Heitzler has his way, the postponed
Firestone Firehawk 600 will be rescheduled and run later this year with slower
cars.

The question at hand is whether the welcome mat at Texas Motor Speedway is
still laid out.

"Our goal is to get this race back on the schedule," Heitzler said Tuesday. "If
Texas Motor Speedway will work with us, give us some dates, we believe we can
respond in a very safe and diligent manner, and we look to do this."
Speedway general manager Eddie Gossage has given no indication in conversations
the past two days that he wants CART back, though.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sports_day/auto/354694_02cart.html

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Crap, I lost the link. But I read online musings today that privately and
unofficially, the WC guys are applauding the drivers and CART’s decision not
to race at TMS. They all say the same thing, that the track is a horrible
death just waiting to happen. CART should have not been there in the first
place, but they did the smart thing and are keeping drivers alive. had this
been the 1960′s in Formula One, we would all be talking about the three or
four deaths at the track this weekend, instead of the race that didn’t
happen. CART has set a fantastic precedent, considering drivers and fans
lifes first, and profits second. There will be a lawsuit, but its a bullet
the entire racing community should be thankful that CART took.

once again, just stating the obvious.

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To all of you who are pissed at the postponement of the TMS race, at least
CART avoided something that could have potentially looked a lot like this.
or worse.

http://speedvision.com/~data/publish/racing/04IRL/010430a.PHOTO_LARGE…

http://speedvision.com/~data/publish/racing/04IRL/010428b.PHOTO_LARGE…

Say what you want about CART blowing it in Texas, but I prefer a few pissed
off fans to the alternative; dead race car drivers or dead race fans.

And BTW, if you think this is in any way "cool", you are one fucked up
individual. Really, the IRL also dodged a bullet on the weekend. Add to that
the tire going into the grandstand. Had the CART situation NOT happened at
Texas this weekend, the big story in open-wheel racing would have been about
the giant flaming wreck in the IRL. Either way, the point is that indycars
(CART or IRL) should not be racing at high banked tracks. As those poor
people at Charlotte. oh wait, you can’t, they’re dead. CART was smart
(albeit, a little to late) and did not race at a high-banked oval, and the
IRL raced at a high-banked oval, and nearly cost a few people their lives.
In either circumstance, both series got off lucky. And in case you haven’t
figured it out yet, this isn’t a CART vs. IRL post, its an "open wheel" vs
"highbanked tracks post."

Admit it, Highbanks and open-wheel do not mix. Plain and simple. Theres a
reason they gave up on that old LeMans track 40-some years ago.
Dieing ain’t no way of making a living.

Once again, being painfully obvious, and just telling it like it is.

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There are unconfirmed reports out this morning that CART may be returning to
TMS after Fontana.

from the current Champcar engine formula. What would happen if they did
this?

Would the engines blow and how much speed would this eliminate.

I am just thinking about Michigan and California.  There always seems to be
about a 5 mph increase in speed from the time they run at Michigan to the
time that they run at California.

I would think — right now — that they are going to run 240 at Michigan and
thus 245 at California for qualifying speeds.  I base that on last year,
when they qualified 236 at Michigan and 241 at California.

Will running a reduction to 36 inches of boost be enough to slow the cars
down sufficiently.   Or should the boost be eliminated al together.

Tuesday’s Los Angeles Times has an article
in the sports page (probably findable at
their website), largely covering Bryan
Herta’s take on the Texas situation.

Among other things, Bryan says that "no one
could have predicted speeds of more than 230 mph
at the track but added that chassis and engine
devlopments are made from race to race and that
his car’s turbocharged Ford engine feels more
powerful that it did before a rule change this
year reduced turbocharger pressure in an
effort to cut speeds."

"The big thing is the draft," Herta said.  "Running
in a pack of 20 cars increases speeds even more.
They couldn’t reach those speeds in testing."

Herta also described the drivers’ meeting:
"In over eight years in CART, I know Dr. Olvey
and the president of CART (Joseph Heitzler)
don’t normally come to our drivers’ meetings,
so when I saw them at the front of the room,
I knew something was up.  When Dr. Olvey
asked for a show of hands (of drivers who
had experienced symptoms of vertigo), I
saw how many hands went up and I was floored."

Michael Andretti was quoted in the Monday
Los Angeles Times as saying something to
the effect that they had never encountered
this (vertigo and other symptoms) before.

Seems to reinforce the idea that CART did
the right thing in making the decision to
postpone, and seriously erred in not anticipating
this possibility.  The latter point is amplified
by concerns first voiced when racing at Texas
was first proposed.  Mario Andretti was very
vocal that racing on these high banked tracks
would be particularly dangerous for the CART
cars.

I’m guessing they’ll come up with a reduced boost
formula, and/or other measures to slow the cars
a bit and re-schedule.  How they’ll handle the
justifiedly upset fans who paid not only for
tickets, but in many instance, some degree
of travel and accomodations, will be interesting.

A no-win situation for CART, but in terms of
safety, a no loss (or total win) for cancelling.

-
SterlingLA (Sterling Smith)

I guess killing people in the electric chair isn’t enough.
http://www.racingone.com/images/articles/6885.jpg

Is it just me? or is everyone from texas completely out of their mind? I say
fuck ‘em., don’t go back to Texas motor Speedway. These aren’t the type of
fans that CART wants anyways. Anyone who bitches and complains about a
racing series trying to save lives is not a racing fan IMO. if you want to
watch tha kind of garbage, go to the dump and shoot seagulls. Its more your
intellectual level. Either that or Monster truck racing. I would say go
watch wrestling, but you probably wouldn’t get it. Ignorant bastards.

once again, just stating the blatantly obvious

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