![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Safety at Talladega
Apr. 27th, 2009 01:58 pmEight fans injured on last lap wreck sends car into fence.
I am a Bama boy, so Talladega is naturally my favorite track. All five of the Winston/Sprint Cup races I've seen have been at Talladega. I have seen extremely exciting races and I've seen some of the most boring follow-the-leader/43 car train races at the track.
I have never been a fan of restrictor plates and still am not. Until NASCAR can cut the smooth aerodynamics of the cars, you will only see cars crammed together in one HUGE pack or you'll have them all lined up single file. The engines have been too equalized by the restrictor plate racing. No one can give their engines the gasps of air needed for a jolt of power to pull off a pass. As illustrated by the power of two cars with bumpers glued together being able to pass a looser-spaced line of other cars yesterday, racing at Talladega is too reliant on aerodynamics for advancement. The cars on the tracks really need to get a shape closer to the cars you see on the road to cut the influence of air and put a little more value into this whole series being comprised of "stock cars."
As for the track... I appreciate seeing races at Talladega more the past few times I've gone over the first couple of races I saw as a teenager. The big difference - large TV screens ring the in-field of the track for those on the grandstands to view. Watching the race there consists of yelling while your driver blurs past you, watching the cars thru binoculars when they hit the banking, and then catch a flash or two of cars as they go down the opposite straightaway/dogleg. While it is nothing like the situation at Indy, you just can't possibly view the majority of the track at Talladega from the grandstands. The addition of TVs alleviates one of my earlier concerns about safety at the track. I don't mind at all if Talladega adds thicker, longer, or more poles along the fencing. They can also add a good strong mesh layer along the outside of the fence to help with debris. Unless you are in the bottom rows on the grandstand (in which case - the noise, smoke, and bits of black rubber flying around you are a bigger annoyance) this additional fencing structure will have little negative impact to one's enjoyment of the race.
I don't think anything failed yesterday at the race...but it could have gone a little better.
I am a Bama boy, so Talladega is naturally my favorite track. All five of the Winston/Sprint Cup races I've seen have been at Talladega. I have seen extremely exciting races and I've seen some of the most boring follow-the-leader/43 car train races at the track.
I have never been a fan of restrictor plates and still am not. Until NASCAR can cut the smooth aerodynamics of the cars, you will only see cars crammed together in one HUGE pack or you'll have them all lined up single file. The engines have been too equalized by the restrictor plate racing. No one can give their engines the gasps of air needed for a jolt of power to pull off a pass. As illustrated by the power of two cars with bumpers glued together being able to pass a looser-spaced line of other cars yesterday, racing at Talladega is too reliant on aerodynamics for advancement. The cars on the tracks really need to get a shape closer to the cars you see on the road to cut the influence of air and put a little more value into this whole series being comprised of "stock cars."
As for the track... I appreciate seeing races at Talladega more the past few times I've gone over the first couple of races I saw as a teenager. The big difference - large TV screens ring the in-field of the track for those on the grandstands to view. Watching the race there consists of yelling while your driver blurs past you, watching the cars thru binoculars when they hit the banking, and then catch a flash or two of cars as they go down the opposite straightaway/dogleg. While it is nothing like the situation at Indy, you just can't possibly view the majority of the track at Talladega from the grandstands. The addition of TVs alleviates one of my earlier concerns about safety at the track. I don't mind at all if Talladega adds thicker, longer, or more poles along the fencing. They can also add a good strong mesh layer along the outside of the fence to help with debris. Unless you are in the bottom rows on the grandstand (in which case - the noise, smoke, and bits of black rubber flying around you are a bigger annoyance) this additional fencing structure will have little negative impact to one's enjoyment of the race.
I don't think anything failed yesterday at the race...but it could have gone a little better.
