Indy Pocono (possible spoilers)

Big crash. Many cars involved. Red flagged.

Wickens looks very serious. His car is out of camera view but he's still in it.

 

Come on guys... its a 500 mile race. You can't avoid crashing twice in 7 laps?

That catch fence looks really dangerous to go up into. They may have to stop this race. I can't see them repairing it anytime soon.

 

Wickens is out of the car and into an ambulance, no mention of his condition. Medevac helicopter ready. The car is nothing but a battered tub.

 

Rahal's move was truly boneheaded. The front row hadn't even crossed the line and he starts racing.

 

they're loading Wickens on the helicopter now. praying for the best.

I'm OK with IndyCar never going back to Pocono.

 

They don't seem to be in a hurry.....chopper just now leaving.

 

IRL not making a statement yet is a real concern

 

The fact they're saying nothing is worrisome.

 

Oh good, he's alive. "Awake and alert, being transported"

 

They sure took their time announcing his condition.

 

Looks like Kenny Brack's big one...thankfully slightly less intense...fingers crossed for Robert...

 

And we’re running again

 

I think if Alonso is seeing this today he's like "umm... I don't think so"

IMO Alonso may race the 500 and maybe some of the road courses for the fun of it but will never race the full season.

 

Massive shunt as Marc points out similar to Kenny Brack or worse, Dan Wheldon.

Not much in the way of updates so far...

Hopefully, Wickens is okay. He's got a vary promising career ahead of him.

https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/news/wickens-airlifted-to-hospital-after-vicious-shunt-at-pocono/3161147/

BHW

 

Wickens is damn if you do, damn is you don't. He's not aggressive enough and it causes people to crash him out. In this case everyone says he's too aggressive and he crashes out. RHR was fully aware that he was there and turned down into him anyways. You've got me why this time, like most times, it's considered his fault.

Pocono looks like a **** hole of a track. The catch fence looks like rusted garbage. Wickens was without a doubt one of the standouts of the season and Indy is doing everything they can to ensure the guy doesn't return.

My thoughts are with Wickens right now.

 

Rossi is a helluva racer. I rate him ahead of at least half the drivers on the F1 grid....

 

I wouldn't call it a **** hole, but I raced there and it was a little scary.

 

Looks as though the car did its job in this case.

The latest news has it that Wickens is with orthopedic physicians so could be the
case of broken leg(s), pelvis, etc. but hate to speculate.

The other incident which should have been fresh in our memories was Scott Dixon's
horrible looking shunt at Indy last year. Amazing how he walked away from that.

BHW
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

per Paul Tracy: Wickens broke both ankles, one arm, possible vertebrae fracture.

 

official update from Indycar:

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

Here's to hoping for a speedy recovery. I was really pulling for him this season. After Wilson's death and now this, I hope Indy is evaluating if they should continue returning to Pocono.

The race was a snore fest. Complete domination by Rossi. He'd likely be leading the championship if he hadn't made some bonehead decisions earlier in the season.

These events and the return of ****bag Ferrucci to Indy aren't very good press. There was also talk from Robin Miller saying Honda won't let Alonso race with one of their motors. He can test but he can't race.

 

I wonder if Alonso was watching . . .

 

A lot of F-1 drivers considering moving to Indy Car have stated that due to the nature of the ovals
they deemed Indy Car racing as too dangerous.

Most notably, Michael Schumacher was very vocal about this among others who considered
a move to Indy Car only to see their friends being maimed (and worse) on the high speed
ovals.

BHW

 

Lots of discussion on social media about how Indy should never return to Pocono.
I've been attending races at Pocono since about 1982, most recently at the Indycar race in 2014. My impression is that it was "okay" for sportscar races 30 years ago but it is a dump now.
As for this particular crash - they're bloody lucky - the track, the series, etc, that nothing ended up in the stands. As it was big pieces made it through or over the fence. The fence, largely, did the job it was supposed to do - shredding the car - but also caused the helicopter spin in the air which could have disastrous for poor Wickens.
I don't believe that Indy should go back. It's a boring track - I left 20 minutes into the last Indycar race I went to there - and you can judge the safety problems quite easily from just looking at the standards of the place.

 

Well, indycar without ovals isn't a series. I don't see that ever happening. F1 is overly obsessed with safety, IMO. Most of the risk has been squeezed out of F1 so I guess the drivers expect that in every venue.