This is Dangerous
This is the end of the year. We have had a lot great moments in motorsports. Great drivers have added to their legacies. Budding stars have continued to blossom. There were plenty of times we were left in awe of races and had plenty to be joyous about.
But 2018 reminded us motorsports is dangerous.
The most memorable moments of this year were the accidents that involved Robert Wickens at Pocono and Sophia Flörsch at Macau.
Memorable doesn't mean good. It doesn't mean positive. It doesn't mean we can have a laugh about it. Memories are bad and good and sometimes the bad linger longer.
These two moments will last as long if not longer in our minds than Will Power's Indianapolis 500 victory, Sebastian Vettel going off at Hockenheim and handing a victory to Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Toyota and co-drivers Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima.
Both incidents left an imprint on the mind of the motorsport's world.
For Wickens, it was a flight into the catchfence, skimming the top of Ryan Hunter-Reay's car, a hole torn in the barrier separate the beasts from the spectators, a two-hour delay, a confirmation that Wickens was alive and the resumption of a race while praying we could get through it and make it to another day.
For Flörsch, it was the shock. The abrupt flight caught on the cell phones of spectators turned amateur cameramen that left everyone stunned but kept everyone rolling. It was a missile that cleared the park, taking down the fence that was meant to keep the monsters contained and putting marshals and photographers in danger.
Both drivers broke backs. Both are on a long road to recovery. Robert Wickens is fighting just to walk again. It is weekly updates of physical therapy, a man with withered legs doing all he can to become partial again let alone whole. Wickens has returned to the state of a toddler, just trying to take one step at a time. If he gets back to walking on his own with any assistance from a cane or walker I don't care if he ever gets in a race car again. That is enough of a victory.
Flörsch may not have the same climb to make as Wickens but she will be sidelined for a while. She also has many years left of her prime. She just turned 18 years old. Motorsports has flexibility. Nobody wants her to be out for a lengthy period of time but she could take a year or two or three to heal and get her strength back and return in sports cars or touring cars and have a lengthy career.
In the wake of these accidents, it is natural for people to look for solutions and not all proposed solutions are popular. With Wickens' accident, the old tune returned of people screaming for IndyCar to not race on ovals. The call for a better alternative to the current catchfence sprang up again. Some blasted IndyCar for not having implemented the halo, though the halo in no way was going to keep Wickens from the injuries he suffered. Flörsch's accident has some concerns over the next generation of the Formula Three cars at Macau. There are plenty of people thinking about how to slow the cars down on the narrow street circuit.
We can make motorsports safer. We can have a better catchfence. We can do more to protect drivers. But this is a dangerous sport and just like any sport you cannot completely prevent injuries.
Think about motorsports for a second and what happens. You have drivers going 200 MPH, sometimes faster than that. Even if it isn't 200 MPH, it is 150 MPH, 130 MPH, 115 MPH! All speeds most do not have the stomach to imagine doing in a street vehicle while on the way to work or to drop the kids off at school. If we get into an accident at those speeds, we will likely get hurt.
In a race car, there are additional safety devices to make sure a driver doesn't get hurt and most times a driver does not get injured, at least not to the extent we would in a street vehicle. Drivers walk away most of the time, even at the accidents over 200 MPH but there is still a chance a driver will not be so fortunate.
When you are going that fast and something goes wrong there is a chance you will get hurt. It is the same way in hockey when you are skating after a puck, there is a chance a player could be checked into the board and suffer an injury or in football a player could be hit legally and still be taken out. Think about Alex Smith of Washington and his gruesome broken leg. We have seen some horrific leg injuries in basketball over reason years from Kevin Ware at Louisville, Paul George when practicing with the United States national team and Gordon Hayward in the opening minutes of his first game with the Boston Celtics.
When athletes push the limits they are pushing their bodies to the point of breaking and things can go wrong. The same is true for motorsports. Unlike football or basketball or hockey where a body can break just as bad with a non-contact injury as one with contact with a fellow player or surface, injuries in motorsports are contact injuries and the contact is severe at times.
No one wants drivers to get hurt but it has to be acknowledged that it is a real possibility in every race. Some injuries are not that bad. There are plenty of broken wrists and bruises but we should not think the bad injuries should never happen.
It is a better time for motorsports. This isn't the 1960s when fatalities happened on a monthly basis. We see more drivers and even riders in motorcycle racing complete a full season than before. It is safer and safety can improve but it is still dangerous and injuries will still occur.
It is important to remind ourselves of what we are watching and what can occur. It can be difficult to swallow what could happen. While inspirational, watching Robert Wickens have to learn to walk again and thinking about how great he was this season and how basic daily tasks are now challenges is tough to handle. But like all sports one day you can be on the mountaintop and the next it could be over.
Motorsports is safer than it was and more can be done and should be done to make it safer for the drivers, crews and spectators at the event. We have to remember even with all these improvements it does not mean injuries and even fatalities can be eradicated from the sport. Sometimes every preventive step possible can be done and it still not be enough.
When you go the speeds these men and women reach sometimes the results of an accident is out of our control.
Winners From the Weekend
The #24 Algarve Pro Racing Ligier-Judd of Andrea Pizzitola and Harrison Newey won the 4 Hours of Fuji. The #3 United Autosports Ligier-Nissan of Matthew Bell, Kay Van Berlo and Christian England won in LMP3. The #11 CarGuy Racing Ferrari of James Calado, Kei Cozzolino and Takeshi Kimura won in GT fir the second consecutive race.
Aurélien Panis won the Andros Trophy race from Val Thorens. The second race was cancelled due to a snowstorm.
Hunter McElrea won the Road to Indy Shootout, earning him a $200,000 scholarship to race in U.S. F2000 in 2019. McElrea was the 2018 Australian Formula Ford Series champion.
Hunter McElrea won the Road to Indy Shootout, earning him a $200,000 scholarship to race in U.S. F2000 in 2019. McElrea was the 2018 Australian Formula Ford Series champion.
Coming Up This Weekend
The Formula E season opener from Saudi Arabia.
But this is the final Musings From the Weekend until New Year's Eve! There will be a Formula E preview later this week. Next week will be the seventh For the Love of Indy Awards. After that it will be time for predictions and of course we will have our annual Christmas list.
