For what it's worth, the writer, Ed Hinton, has been around racing for
decades... he's not a fly-by-night sensationalist. That's why he got to talk
to all the heavy hitters that he did in the article.
Rant on:
I too would hope that NASCAR is only putting this on the face of the safety
topic and are *truly* doing things behind the scenes to improve safety.
However, I firmly believe this is Not the case. Why? Very little action on
their part... CART and F1 have studied it and made implementations... NASCAR
puts a kill switch on the floorboard. They have their heads stuck in the
Daytona beach sand.
I hear everyone (Jerry Punch, all the NASCAR lackeys) say that "Safety is
Number 1 in NASCAR" and "NASCAR makes the safest racecars in the world." Um,
ok... that's why we keep burying these guys, right. Racing obviously is
inherently dangerous, but NASCAR has to bust out their big $$ and truly take
the lead. Prove it through actions, not merely saying "Safety is No. 1."
I understand them saying "we need to study this." But when they keep
repeating it for months, and months, it rings hollow.
Another claim they make is that they want to watch costs... for the
competitors, like in the case of aluminum seats. I know that Scott Pruett
wanted to use a carbon seat last year, but Nascar mandates aluminum. Now,
virtually every other series in the world uses carbon seats, but not Nascar.
They claim alloy is better because of cost. Well, let's face it, these guys
do not go down to Racer Wholesale and get the $100 seat. They spend big $$
to get it to fit them exactly, and to have it customized with the features
they want. By the time they are done, they probably spent what they would've
on carbon.
Bottom line: they can keep the cars the way they look on the outside, and
keep using the low-tech components that they do (in comparison to CART,
F1)... inside, however, there is no reason they have to resemble stock cars
of 5, 10 or 15 years ago. There is enough $$ and interest in the sport to
make these things the safest, most high-tech interiors of any sedan series
in the world. No more excuses.
Rant off:
IMHO
--Dave Schwabe
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 19:18:18 -0800
From: Jon-Mark Schneider <jon-mark@pacbell.net>
Subject: RE: NASCAR officials say Earnhardt's belt ripped
The article is quite sad. The attitiude of NASCAR("You can't tell us
nuttin' we already don't know because you ain't one of us.") represents a
horrible stereotype of folks from the South. I like to think that people
are beyond this type of thing. Its tragic that NASCAR continues to behave in
this way. I normally feel that it's best to keep the lawyers out of it, but
after reading that article, I feel its important that *someone* get full
disclosure from NASCAR regarding their safety tests, and a reporter asking
nicely will not cut it.
Dave Schwabe
schwabe@wi.net
"If you're in control, you're not going fast enough" -- Parnelli Jones
The Aussie Toad -- GPL Brabham Page
http://users.wi.net/~schwabe
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