The recent tragedy at Summit Point has brought to the forefront of my
mind a few serious but interesting points. For the most part, we drive
cars from the most dangerous era of motosports. A time when cars were
clearly capable of 150-200+ mile an hour speeds and yet had atrocious
safety standards by modern design criteria. Feet forward, no or little
crush protection, surrounded by gasoline, poor head protection, etc.
Literally, 1000's of us race these cars every weekend, with motors
that put out much more horsepower than they ever did in their heyday,
with tires that allow us to corner far faster than they did in their
heyday, and with (for the most part) drivers that have far less
experience than the professionals who raced them during their time.
Yet against these seemingly grim odds, their has not been a vintage
fatality in the US in over a decade, as far as I am aware.Literally
10's of thousands of safe race miles logged by the vintage racers of
this country. While it makes me very sad to read of the death of this
gentleman at Summit Point it also makes me feel very proud and very
lucky, that we all have been able to realize our racing dreams with
what can only be considered an exemplary safety record.
Cheers to you all,
Casey Annis
Vintage Auto Racing Association
|