What went wrong in Miami?

Here's more . . . .
Born in St. Louis on April 15th 1975, Dana held a varied career in motor racing, which included working as a mechanic, a driving instructor and a motorsport journalist for Autoweek and Sports Illustrated.

Dana graduated in 1996 with a degree in journalism from the Northwestern University of Illinois. He then made his driving debut in the Skip Barber Formula Dodge series, where he won six races in 1998.

Moving residence to Indianapolis, Dana rose through the ranks, joining Forsythe Racing in Formula Ford 2000 in 2001, with a best finish of third place at Watkins Glen.

In 2003, Dana moved up to IRL's feeder category, the Infiniti Pro Series, finishing ninth in the points standing for that year. A year later, racing for Hemelgarn-Johnson Motorsports, Dana finished series runner-up, having taken a win at the 1-mile Milwaukee oval.

Dana made his IndyCar series debut in Homestead-Miami last year, driving the #91 Ethanol Hemelgarn Racing car.

But his IndyCar career was cut short after an accident during practice for the 2005 Indianapolis 500, where he fractured two vertebrae and was sidelined for the rest of the season.



Interestingly enough, Patrick collected Carpenter last year in a similar situation. Why Dana didn't slow - who knows - there are many questions to be answered on this one. They said no communication failures and even if there were and you saw five (or however many were shown on tv having slowed down when Carpenter was stationary on the track) cars slowing, it seems that you would realize something was not quite right. One report I read stated the only indication that Dana slowed was when all you saw was tire smoke from braking at impact time.

Carol

 

for those that have never driven in a oval, your vision is greatly shortened. When he started breaking was when he saw the car. As for all the rest we can only speculate. There will never be an answer to this question because the only person that can answer that is dead.

 

Given that, the spotter becomes even more important...where was he?

 

giving him the message to slow down...according to Bobby R.

 

here is the problem I see.

even if you get the call in your ear but are under full concentration passing someone or right on the edge you may not register that immediately. A second late reaction was all it took.

My personal opinion, there cannot much be learned here. It was a racing accident that really could not have been avoided. One of those that is hard to comprehend but is one that simply means this sport is dangerous and can cause injury or death. Just as the track waiver tells you.

 

Wasn't it a practice session with basically nothing at stake? Why not brake when you get the warning?

 

Articles like the one I read this morning tick me off. I hate when publications who "dabble" in motorsports coverage jump in whenever there's a tragedy. I had to write a letter.

http://suntimes.com/output/slezak/cst-spt-carol281.html

Here's what I wrote to the paper:

Dear Carol,

There are two statements that can instantly reveal a person's ignorance towards auto racing. The first is to claim that the drivers aren't athletes. The second, as Carol Slezak inferred in her March 28th article about the death of rookie driver Paul Dana, is to believe that fans of motor sports attend races to see the crashes, to satisfy some sort of "blood lust". In her article, Ms. Slezak states:

"In fact, many would agree that the ever-present threat of death is the sport's most enticing aspect."

She then goes on to criticize the IRL for running its race in the wake of a fatality, accusing it of doing so based on the lack of Dana's star quality. Carol continues on by painting a callous picture of fans entering the track who "expressed disappointment" upon hearing the news that Dana's teammate and IRL star, Danica Patrick, was withdrawn out of respect. Carol, how many of these fans were fully aware of the situation? If you're going to make assumptions about people, why must they be negative and stereotypical?

Auto racing is one of the most exciting sports on earth. Unfortunately there is an inherent risk to the sport. A risk all the participants are fully aware of and have mechanisms for coping in the wake of a tragedy like this. This usually means getting right back behind the wheel. Unlike more traditional stick and ball sports, the potential brutality of auto racing plays itself out on the field of play, in front of fans. Let me ask you this question: How many games has the MLB or NFL cancelled out of respect for fallen players, stricken down at an early age due to the ravages of steroid-related illnesses? Exactly. That's because, in other sports, the damages afflicted on the participants most often appear in the shadow of retirement, conveniently out of view of the television cameras.

Finally, what I find to be most offensive is that most newspapers and magazines pay motor sports little or no attention until tragedy strikes. Then we're bombarded with these full-page stories about the brutality of the sport and the blood-thirsty fans, written by someone who will be covering a baseball game tomorrow. It's called sensationalism.

"In fact, many would agree" that it is the press that finds the dangers of the sport to be so enticing.

If you're going to dabble in the coverage of auto racing, at least have the decency to write a piece that honors the slain driver. Instead, you chose to take advantage of a vulnerable moment to hurl criticisms and accusations, all of which are baseless. Well done.

 

Fantastic letter!

 

Jack, you stuck it to the man, or woman in this case. Bravo!

 

Brilliant response Jack!!!

 

Great letter Jack!

Jim:
as a fellow track junky I hear your point and agree to a certain point. Yes I look at it and look back at my own "almost mises" and try to learn. In this case though I don't think there is much we can learn. Of course you should lift off when a caution is thrown and at the same time be very carefull and look forward further than before.
Something happened that made him react not as he or anybody else would have. I will give him that much credit that he full well knew to lift on yellow and not "race to the flag" or "keep the pressure going". Especially not in a practice session. A moment (brief at best) of being distracted by something (hell maybe he saw Danica in underwear getting into her drivers suit a moment earlier) was enough to not react "normal" at that very moment. That was enough for the crash and his fate.
We all have those moments while on the track, a flagstand not realized, a flag pointed not seen, missing a breakzone by way too much etc because not being 110% there.
All I am saying is to not over analyze this crash. Wrong moment, wrong time, wrong line. Destiny catching up with you.

 

Thanks guys. We'll see if it gets printed (not holding my breath). Last time I wrote a letter it was to the same girl. She wrote a column criticizing men for taking a sexual view towards women in sports. I told her that, instead of blowing hot air our way, how about challenging the women out there to support their own kind in sports? Then they wouldn't have to rely on the support of men and, in turn, feel the need to sex things up.

 

Gilles27,

What a great letter!

 

Maybe the guy just lost his concentration for a split second and that was all it took to create the perfect storm.

 

Jack - Great letter. Perhaps this journalist might find Better Homes and Garden a better bet than attempting to cover autosports.

Carol
(NOT the Carol who wrote the article!)

 

Instead of losing concentration for a moment, it's likely Dana was so focused on the track immediately in front of him, he missed the spotters call and didn't see Carpenter's car until it was too late, hence the locked up front brakes at the last minute.

All of the professionals that I know have lots of "headroom", basically excess processing capacity where, as they head into T1 at Homestead (for instance), they are turning their head and looking ahead at the exit of T2 for signs of trouble. All this at 200 mph+.

Paul was going very fast. He was in great equipment and he had qualified ninth on the grid. Unfortunately, that achievement did not accurately forecast whether or not he had reached the point where he could look further down the road...

-Peter

 

IRL boss says Dana had hit debris

Tuesday, March 28th 2006, 13:21 GMT


IRL IndyCar Series president Brian Barnhart has confirmed that Paul Dana struck debris from Ed Carpenter's crash just before hitting the car itself.

Television replays suggested that Dana had already sustained damage from running over an unidentified object approximately 30 yards before the fatal impact with Carpenter's Dallara.

"We're still not sure what happened, and we haven't been able to determine what that was that (Dana) hit," Barnhart told the Indianapolis Star.

"My guess it was something from Ed's left rear (corner), given the size of it."

Although this initial contact may have affected Dana's ability to avoid Carpenter's car, it occurred several seconds after the caution lights and the warning from Dana's spotter.

 

Robin Miller wrote an interesting commentary on SpeedTV.com that begins:

"With all due respect to the deceased and his family, Paul Dana was in over his head; the victim of a system where people have been buying rides at the highest level for more than 25 years."

You can read the rest of it at http://www.speedtv.com/commentary/22748/.

(And I have always felt that Ed Carpenter, whose spin precipitated the subsequent events, is also in over his head, as were people like Dale Coyne and Randy Lewis in years past.)

 

I caught only one replay of the event. I thought they said his spotter told him to go low. The initial crash was up high on the track. Still, it had been 8 seconds. That's a lot of distance at 200 mph to make a change of direction.

 

This was a really horrible accident. For some reason, I feel like this could have been avoided.

 

Nice job guy.

 

I knew Paul personally. He was a friend and a fellow racer. Many of you responding have never been on a racetrack. I am not trying to bash anyone but there are things that a driver must do and thoughts he must process at speeds quicker than most of you could ever comprehend.

First of all, he was entering a TURN at 200mph. Do you know what happens when you trail off the throttle mid-corner in a racecar? Do you know what happens if you tap the brakes mid-corner in a racecar? Do you know what happens when you slam the brakes mid-corner in a racecar? Chances are that many of you do not know or understand the handling characteristics of a racecar what physical changes the car experiences when you do any of those inputs.

As a professional driver myself, I know that 9 times out of 10, if I was mid-corner at a high rate of speed, I would keep in the throttle to keep my car balanced and on line. Any small lift of throttle or brake application can cause a huge unsettling of the car. I cannot and will not go into why this occurs. Paul did what (in my opinion) most professional drivers would do.

There was an accident and my friend lost his life. It is a tough game we play. The stakes are high. We go out of our way to prepare the safest possible cars but the risk of injury or even death is forever present.

You can sit here and analyze and reanalyze the crash. It will not bring Paul back and there is really nothing to be learned here. Pauls death is not the first one at that racetrack, nor will it be the last.

He paid the ultimate sacrifice doing what he loved. In such a tough time, I am able to seek comfort in the fact that he was living his dream.

Godspeed my friend.