Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Not much has moved me to comment lately, but there were a sequence of crashes that I felt the need to make observations on. They are the Xfinity crash at Daytona with Kyle Busch, Alonso's McLaren crash at Barcelona, and a support race driver at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide that I apologise that I do not know his name.

Kyle Busch was involved in a fairly innocuous side swipe at the exit of the Tri-Oval. Not enough to damage the car or the driver one would think. It then traveled over 500 feet to hit an unprotected concrete wall at what would be the inside wall from Turn 6 on the road course. He crossed over 400 feet of asphalt which is there as the run off for Turn 1 on the road course. The car appears to have not slowed and the black tire marks would appear to be from the yaw on the car. So why was Kyle, one of the top drivers, not able to turn or spin the car? There is the usual knee-jerk reaction like we saw with Dale Earnhardt with the cry for "safer barrier" everywhere, even though those calling for it accept they do not know it would have made a difference in this case. The tires that were placed for Sunday are a much better solution. Just think back to Massa and Perez at the end of the Canadian F1 race last year. High speed frontal impact into tires and no injury to either of them.

There has not been one word about the car and what happened before or during the impact. Now Kyle's legs may have just flopped around and hit things inside the foot well, but isn't that worth looking at? Did the foot well collapse or did something penetrate it? No one is saying anything. And why could it not stop or change direction? We saw a somewhat similar crash in the 500 where Larson spun and was nowhere near that wall. Answers on a postcard please.

And then there is Alonso, still recuperating at home for a crash that is recorded as a 105 kph hit. Cause of the crash given as the wind, going wide on the astroturf, but nothing wrong with the car apparently. Other drivers think this is all very strange. A low speed side impact in a car designed to protect drivers better than almost anything else on a race track causes concussion. OK, get that, but NFL footballers get concussion and are cleared to play a game where the object is to hit people the following Sunday. Alonso had three days in hospital and his ability to drive in Melbourne in twelve days time is still in doubt?  Something we are not being told.

Then there is the crash in Adelaide on my street circuit. Car breaks right front suspension on the apex curb of the second part of the chicane. One hit too many. So straight on into the unprotected concrete wall right on the edge of the track at Turn 3. The normal accident here is to go in at an angle where it is better to slide down the wall than be thrown back into the path of other cars by a tire wall. No mention of injuries. So is a V8Supercar built better than a Xfinity or F1 car? OK, slower impact than Busch but much closer, and a lot quicker than 105 kph.

We've seen cars disintegrate and drivers walk away. Scott Sharp in the Petit Le Mans a few years back. 90% of that car was destroyed and he unbuckled and walked away. The Audi at Le Mans last year, vertical between the catch fence and concrete wall. I think it was Duvall and not surprisingly he went home to think about that. McNish a few years earlier over the guard rail. Cars can be built to protect drivers, so how about NASCAR having a think about that. Cheaper to fix cars that can race anywhere rather than spend millions on walls that may not be hit again, or install a fix that other series like the IRL don't like.