Paul Dana killed in IRL crash at Homestead

gs39t

http://sports.yahoo.com/irl

A tragic day for racing; Paul Dana was killed in a horrific crash during this mornings practice

acquiescefc

Ed Carpenters critical too.

Terrible start to the season.

gs39t

I'm guessing your watching Sky Sports - Carpenter is NOT in critical condition; he's listed as stable. Sky just cant get anything right

acquiescefc

gs39t wrote:

I'm guessing your watching Sky Sports - Carpenter is NOT in critical condition; he's listed as stable. Sky just cant get anything right

Correct, one of the few that are!!. Thats good news, it looks like Dana hit the back of Carpenters car, if theres any luck thats come out of this.

Hornish is on fire, I think he's won this already.

gs39t

Certainly looking like a Penske will win it anyway. I was hoping Ms. Patrick could have given them a run for their money as it was only both Penske cars that knocked her off pole.

Hasnt been a great race so far, but i dont think anyone wants more drama after the events of earlier today

acquiescefc

Sad day, great finish.

I could see Wheldon barging past on the last lap. Great drive.

gs39t

Yep, great finish in the end. Some dramatic and very tense racing. I dont know how Wheldon and Castroneves didnt touch. Some amazing incar footage in those closing laps.

Still, the whole event was overshadowed. RIP Paul Dana

Jonny Arson

Only just heard about Paul Dana's tragic death. He was driver with alot of potential and this season was meant to be his big break driving for Rahal-Letterman racing. I'm deeply saddened but I can't say I'm shocked to hear that an IRL driver has died. At the back end of 2003 Tony Renna was killed at Indianapolis and Kenny Brack was seriously injured and as a result the IRL reduced speeds by about 8-10 mph so I have to ask myself why are the cars back up to the speed levels of 2003 especially when there is only one manufacturer (Honda) left in the series? Last season Ryan Briscoe escaped a horror smash, Bruno Junquiera and Dana himself broke backs in accidents. I just hope the IRL gets its act together again and slows these cars down once and for all.

BTW Well done Dan Wheldon

Running Bing

Im not a fan of oval racing at all but the speed and closeness of those things is absolutely crazy. Id take my chances on an f1 track any day over IRL. In F1 you might be at the limit on a straight but you break down into the corners, Oval racing is flat out non stop with inches between cars:eek: Does anyone know any reason yet why he didnt slow down? was it a simple explaination of he didnt notice in his enthusiasm(which seems unlikely as he passed a couple of cars if im correct), or are there any other theories yet?

gs39t

Babybing wrote:

Im not a fan of oval racing at all but the speed and closeness of those things is absolutely crazy. Id take my chances on an f1 track any day over IRL. In F1 you might be at the limit on a straight but you break down into the corners, Oval racing is flat out non stop with inches between cars:eek: Does anyone know any reason yet why he didnt slow down? was it a simple explaination of he didnt notice in his enthusiasm(which seems unlikely as he passed a couple of cars if im correct), or are there any other theories yet?

Some motorsports journalists are saying that basically, due to his lack of experience he just didnt listen to his spotter who had apparently clearly told him about Carpenters spinning car. It WAS a long time by racing standards from the time Carpenter spun to Dana hitting him. Perhaps in all honestly, it was his lack of experience that ultimatly contributed to his death. It was to be his first race back since being injured at Indianapolis last year.

EDIT: Buddy Lazier, who Dana passed during the crash as Lazier was slowing down said this at some point: ""He carried way too much speed in and wasn't aware of what was going on around him" I'm not sure WHEN he said that (perhaps before the seriousness of the incident became apparent) but that says a lot.

Curran

Heres a link of a short video if anyone wants to see it!

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/95835/paul_danas_fatal_crash_homestead/

RIP Paul Dana

SouperComputer

They dont need to slow the cars down. Oval racing is dangerous and very unforgiving, its part of the spectacle for the fans and the challenge for the drivers.

It is of course tragic when someone dies or is seriously injured, but drivers are fully aware of the risks. Even if you knock 50MPH (forget about slowing on the corners, they are banked!) off the top speeds, you are still doing 150+ Considering in extreme cases you can have a severe head injury at 30 I think any reduction in speed would be academic. The human body is not designed to cope with the kind of forces that are applied in these instances.

It does look like he was going near enough full tilt into the corner though. He did have enough time to slow down and react, but for some reason didnt.

RIP Paul Dana, a tragic accident.

AdMMM

Pity that the only time RTE give coverage to IRL is at the death of a driver

BrianD3

Even though I don't follow IRL at all and didn't "know" Paul Dana its always sad to hear that a driver has died. Obviously motorsport is dangerous and always will be.

From the video of the crash it was a massive crash but still looked survivable and I have seen worse (eg Jeff Krosnoff and Gordon Smiley fatal crashes). Its hard to see whether Dana's tub was intact after the crash but it looked OK from the bit I saw.

Jonny Arson

BrianD3 wrote:

From the video of the crash it was a massive crash but still looked survivable and I have seen worse (eg Jeff Krosnoff and Gordon Smiley fatal crashes). Its hard to see whether Dana's tub was intact after the crash but it looked OK from the bit I saw.

It's one of those 50/50 ones as to whether he'll survive it or not. I think it was a very bad accident by normal oval racing standards and Ed Carpenter got very lucky with having only sustained brusing to his lung. Even though Dana wasn't at full speed (174mph I think) the impact pretty much ripped off the front end of his car whcih was only going to result in highly serious injuries at best.

gs39t wrote:

Some motorsports journalists are saying that basically, due to his lack of experience he just didnt listen to his spotter who had apparently clearly told him about Carpenters spinning car. It WAS a long time by racing standards from the time Carpenter spun to Dana hitting him. Perhaps in all honestly, it was his lack of experience that ultimatly contributed to his death. It was to be his first race back since being injured at Indianapolis last year.

From watching the crash it pretty much looks like it was driver error on Dana's part even though he hit a piece of Carpenter's debris which shredded his front wing just prior to impact. We won't ever know why he didn't slow down but to put blame on lack of experience I feel is wrong. I don't have enough fingers on my hand to count the amount of time I've seen a driver almost smash into a car at speed and this includes so called veteren drivers. Dana had already started 3 IRL races, finished 2nd in the IRL feeder series in 2004 and has plenty of other oval racing experience. Ok he wasn't an expert but he was hardly a novice either. Some of the journalists and drivers even have been hinting that he shouldn't have been racing in the first palce which I find disgraceful. In this case Ed Carpenter should be parked as he's still out of his depth after 3 seasons and young Marco Andretti should be parked too because he has very little experience on ovals. We won't ever know why he didn't slow down and sadly Dana got unlucky too. Simply a tragic accident.