Putting the Top Up

You would have thought it was announced general admission ticket prices for the Indianapolis 500 had gone up to $300 and all races for the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season were going to be only available on pay-per-view at the price $100 per race with how people reacted to Marshall Pruett's Racer.com story posted Monday afternoon. But the story had nothing to do with the fans having to shell out exuberant amounts of money or the removal of a race or a change in the television package. It had nothing to do with fans whatsoever.

It had to do with driver safety and the vision of an IndyCar. The series is investigating cockpit canopies.

While canopies would be completely new to IndyCar and all of open-wheel racing as a whole, canopies should never have been met with such animosity as it was Monday. It is different but show me the creed from God saying, "open-wheel cars shall be and shall always be open cockpit." Evolution is on going. Engines have shifted from the front to the back of the car. Wings have sprouted. Monocoques have bulked up around the driver. What an open-wheel car looked like in 1920 was different in 1950 and was different in 1970 and was different in 1990. The DW12 chassis, while sharing characteristics with it's predecessors, is different and guess what folks? The car four years from now and ten years from now and twenty-five years from now will look different from the current generation.

Any problem you can find with canopies can be solved. I am sure the powers in charge would develop a canopy that can easily be removed for driver extraction whether the car is on all fours or it's lid and in case of fire. Cooling devices exist to prevent drivers overheating. I am sure ventilation can be incorporated in case toxic fumes get into the cockpit. I am sure engineers can design a car with a canopy that would as aerodynamically efficient as their open cockpit cousins.

Remember there was a time when seat belts weren't regulated, fire suits weren't regulated, helmets weren't regulated then full-face helmets weren't regulated. Did fans blow a gasket over the introduction of those safety features? Sir Stirling Moss never wore a seatbelt in his career because of fear of fire. Motorsports and it's safety features have developed to the point where drivers don't have to choose the risk of being thrown from the car over being trapped in case of a fire. I am sure we are at the point or very near the point where teams and drivers can choose to shield their noggins from flying debris and anything other objects flying into their cockpit at over 200 MPH.

I've talked about canopies before and I look at canopies the same way I look at wearing helmets on motorcycles. I don't think they should be mandated but it makes the most freaking sense in the world to wear a helmet while on a motorcycle and have a canopy over a cockpit. If an aero kit manufacture wants to have an open cockpit, fine with me. If an aero kit manufacture wants to have a canopy, fine with me. I have no problem with the cars looking different and if a team chooses the open cockpit over the canopy, that is there decision. These are adults who know what they have gotten themselves into and the potential risks. If a team chooses the canopy just for the safety aspect, the same way a motorcyclist chooses a helmet, that is perfectly fine.

But it is ridiculous to think current fans would be so ignorant that a safety feature would be the deciding factor on whether or not they follow the series. If IndyCars start featuring canopies, get over it! It's not the end of the world. So what it's different and it wasn't what you grew up with and it has never been done before. These canopies aren't being developed to please you or piss you off. These are being developed as a safety improvement and in hopes of preventing injures and possible deaths. God forbid human life is put ahead of what you think an open-wheel car looks like.

Keep an open mind before jumping off the ship. You might like the change.