A sad farewell to Dan Wheldon

Sincere condolences to the family, friends, and fans of Dan Wheldon, who died last Sunday in the season-ending Indycar race in Las Vegas.

There's already a lot of talk about how inappropriate a venue Las Vegas is for Indycars, and that may well be true.  But maybe it's finally time to face up to the very real issue of open-wheel racing in general.  I've read the articles and seen the footage of the crash, and I think an argument could be made that the crash might not have been so bad if the car had fenders.

Let's face facts; automotive engineers have known for 75 years that enclosing the wheels improves the aerodynamics of a car.  Open-wheeled cars came about because fenders were heavy and easily removable, and tires were very skinny, and speeds were low enough that aerodynamics had not yet been noticed as a factor.  To have open-wheeled racers is one of those ridiculous traditions that serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever.

It's time for the IRL and Formula One to accept the reality; a car with full bodywork is not only more practical, it's safer.  Any Modified or Sprint Car driver can tell you what happens when exposed wheels touch anything, and that looks exactly like what happened to Wheldon.

Open wheels also force the builders of these cars to stick the front shock absorbers inside a very small piece of bodywork that aims the shock towers directly at the driver's head.  Remember how Ayrton Senna died?

In the 1950's Mercedes-Benz put full bodywork on their F1 cars on the faster tracks.  It made them faster.  So the FIA outlawed them, and we've been stuck with this ridiculous, dangerous affectation ever since.  Seeing as good a driver, and person, as Dan Wheldon die cannot help but raise the question; when is somebody going to speak out against open wheels?

The Owner

On the subject of track owners, my favorite one remains Keith Bryar, the founder of the 106 Midway Raceway in Loudon, NH. It later became Bryar Motorsport Park, and is now known as New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Keith’s greatest strength was knowing what he DIDN’T know, which was most everything about running a race track. He hired a flagman, a pit steward, a tech man, and checkers who knew what they were doing and stayed out of their way.



My father happened to be that pit steward, which is a topic for a later article. I can remember one time when there was a conflict of opinion between Dad and Keith. It was over the legality of a car driven by the great Paul Martel. Paul was quite possibly the best driver I ever saw, but he didn’t know which end of a wrench to use. The car he was busy winning a championship with turned out to be illegal by the rules of the day. It was built on the frame of an International Scout. The tech man figured it out and reported it to Dad, who sent him home for two weeks and ordered the car off the track.



When Keith heard, he went to Dad, complaining that Paul was very popular and lots of people would leave if he were kicked out. Dad’s reply was, do you want me to enforce the rules, or not? If not, get somebody else.



The story had a happy ending, but the point is that Keith Bryar decided to trust his pit steward. He was the expert, not Keith. My advice to track owners is, do the same. Your perspective is different from the flagman’s. His, I hope, is running that race as fairly as possible. Yours is how many people are in the stands? How many hamburgers will I sell? What about this car owner that’s helped me so much? What about his sponsor, who just bought a big billboard ad for the back stretch?



I’ve seen a lot of track owners in my over 50 years of involvement with dirt track racing in NH and the area. I am not going to start talking about who I thought was best, worst, or whatever. And I sure as hell am not going to start dragging skeletons out of the closet. I simply want to pass some advice along to the most important person at any track; the owner.