View Full Version : Horrific IndyCar crash
I recorded the full Chicagoland race that took place a couple weeks ago, knowing that race-track's history of unbelievably close finishes with IndyCars (again proved to the same this year).
But early on in the race, Australian rookie Ryan Briscoe (pulled from F3000 by Chip Ganassi, who seems to not have any faith in America's own feeder series) came together with the Red Bull Cheever car of Alex Barron, their front wheels touched and Ryan's car was sent airborn, glided to the outside wall and nosed into the fence, which promptly tore the car in half.
Fortunately, Ryan survived with only a couple broken collar bones and a bruised lung. He was conscious immediately after the crash.
Anyway, here is the video (http://matt.nfscheats.com/videos/irl/briscoe_crash.wmv)
chris
09-23-2005, 08:39 PM
Watched that accident on TV. I still think Ryan Briscoe was mad to go over to America from the Toyota F1 team. Looking at how fast Toyota F1 team (he was one of the test drivers) has been this year..
Watched that accident on TV. I still think Ryan Briscoe was mad to go over to America from the Toyota F1 team. Looking at how fast Toyota F1 team (he was one of the test drivers) has been this year..
I'm sure he was. He shouldn't be over here anyway. It's just that since Chip Ganassi has had two successful drivers who graduated from F3000 and F1 testing (or even former race rides) he seems to think that he should only hire drivers from there. We have a couple of very competitive and very full feeder series here in the U.S. in which many superb drivers have graduated from. Why Chip doesn't look to those series is beyond me.
He felt so strongly about the Euro-trained drivers that when he finally considered hiring a driver from a U.S. feeder series, he instead gives the seat to a couple F3000 graduates and tries to send the American to F3000 (which ultimately did not come through and put said driver out of work for a while with Chip's leg-jerking... that driver would later replace Kenny Brack after his eerily similar crash to Briscoe's a couple years ago and end up winning the Indianapolis 500 and become a prime championship contender... his name is Buddy Rice and he's been kicking Chip Ganassi drivers' asses for some time now).
Chip's team is nowhere this season. And now with Toyota leaving the IRL, I don't see him grabbing anymore Toyota test drivers like Briscoe. But I'm sure he will find another team to leech off of (it used to be Williams he dealt with... gave them Zanardi after his American success and grabbed Montoya from his F1 test role and brought him to America in 1999).
Anyway, Ryan is a very quick driver, but the couple races he's been in so far he's made some huge mistakes. Qualified on pole twice, but was disqualified from his pole at Chicago due to a technical infraction with the car. His first race at Sonoma (one of the IRL's few road courses) he qualified on pole but fell back early. He attempted a banzai move on Danica Patrick going into one of the corners... he went off track trying to pass and when his car bounced over the curbs and rejoined, he side-swiped Danica, which in turn pushed her into Helio Castroneves and put all three cars out of the race. A VERY bone-headed manuever. His shunt shown here at Chicagoland oval is a little less easily blamable on him, but I do feel he should have gone further down to the bottom of the track while making a pass on the inside. He stayed up too high which could have forced Barron up into the grey area of the track where there's marbles and not enough grip, which can very easily put one into the wall.
Anyway, at least he's ok and I'm sure he now has a whole new respect for ovals (if not outright fears or hates them now, as he likely didn't want to be here in the first place... ).