You have GOT to be kidding me!!!

[Scotty G.]

As soon as I saw the first crew pile out of the truck and nobody had a fire extinguisher I thought "this isn't going to be good"

I use to work at a motorsports facility. If our crew had performed as this one did we would have called them into the office after the race and handed them their final paychecks.

Yep.

As much crap as NASCAR's safety teams took for so many years (and deservedly so, in most cases) this was awful tonight. The safety teams in CART and Indy Car were always top notch. Not sure what happened.

Maybe Randy needs to get aligned with SCCA. Because that is what it looked like. A club racing safety team.

[POS_Maggott]

Showboating with intricate "fire truck" systems almost cost them dearly tonight. It's as much the IRLs fault as it was the crews.

Even F1 uses fire bottles... The IRL boys can't even use their brains.

[Lousada]

It's weird they didn't make assignments on who would do what when they got out of the car. Instead all four of them went straight to get the waterhose.
That one guy that starts yanking her out, looked like he didn't keep his composure. Not really encouraging behaviour for a safety crew member.

[GRW1983]

That was an absolute disgrace. I'm surprised Simona didn't punch the Safety crew for taking so long to get her out. Why did they just stand there and do nothing!!!??? SHE'S ON FIRE!!!! DO SOMETHING!!!, DON'T JUST STAND THERE!!!. I have to say that whilst removing the head-restraint seemed to be the issue in her getting out, that shouldn't be an issue. I thought IndyCar drivers, like F1 drivers had to be able to exit the car in 5 seconds. If you look at Kanaan's crash from Indy, he removed the steering wheel, unbuckled and climbed out as did Helio, and Moraes. I understand removal of the head-collar if a driver was injured for better extracation, but that was absolutely shocking. Very poor indeed.

[shazbot]

Thank goodness she didn't have any other injury, which would have unboubtedly been worsed by her removal from the car. Just as pitiful is the commentators lack of criticism. Are they that much under the PR thumb of the IRL? Call it like it is.

[GRW1983]

Also, reminds me of Carpenter's crash at Chicago 2008. On fire, but couldn't get out until head-collar was removed. I understand this is a safety innovation, but I've always thought this would, unnecessarily, delay a driver from exiting the car. A driver should be able to remove the steering wheel, unbuckle and climb out. The radio. drinks pipe, air pipe should just disconnect if your in a hurry to get out. What I don't understand is that why do some drivers HAVE to remove the head-collar to get out and others don't. EVERY driver should be able to get out of the car WITHOUT removing the head-collar because that wastes precious seconds as was evident with Simona. IndyCar officials MUST act over this so this doesn't happen again, or remind ALL drivers to exit the car, in a fire situation, WITHOUT trying to remove the head collar. This could have been a lot worse and HVM are absolutely spot-on with their criticism of the Safety team. They should publicly apologise as well.

[Easy Drifter]

Thanks to TSN putting the race on TSN2 I did not see it but from the comments it was pretty bad.
Back in the 70's, no less, the Cdn. Race Communications Marshals were trained by the then Scarborough Fire Dept. with those manning the Safety Trucks receiving additional training at CFB Trenton from the Airforce Firefighters.
Further they had one person on the trucks outfitted with full entry suits and others in firefighter bunker suits. I know, my ex was Director of Safety for CRCA and was the first woman to wear one of the entry suits. They sat in the trucks with the engine running when cars were on track fully suited up except for the helmet. Not the most comfortable way to spend a hot day at the track.
I do not know about CRCA today or the Mosport Marshal group.

[markabilly]

she was lucky to have not been hurt worse.
from the time the first respneder had his foot on the pavement until she was out of the car was about 40 seconds....but she had already been in a car on fire for about another 25 seconds with the fire coming up into her face and on one side.
time to second degree burn in a top rated suit under the SFI 3.2A/20, is 40 seconds
but a heavy and hot suit.

http://www.profoxracing.com/sfi.html

http://www.circletrack.com/featuredv...ps_advice.html





I do not beleive most drivers wear anything more than a SFI 3.2A/5....which is good for about a whole 9 seconds before 2nd degree burns set in......

she was lucky the fire had not gotten down inside the leg and/or body area inside the cockpit, or she would be in serious or critical condtion in a burn unit without question

[GRW1983]

I watched this again on Youtube and the head-collar was certainly the problem. Once she came to rest, she had the steering wheel off immediately, and was then trying to remove the head-collar but it wouldn't move. After several failed attempts, it looks like, eventually, the right-hand side of the collar snapped and she could sort of get out of the car. She would've been able to get out herself, I think, at this stage but because two or three safety workers started pulling on her before she was fully 'up' from her seat, that made it worse for a few more seconds. She was being yanked left when she needed to come up first and that's why it took her so long to get out. The safety team has so much to answer for this. Absolutely appalling. If that had been me, I'd have been so angry. Simona's reaction afterwards showed what a true professional she is. She was almost blaming herself for her failure to exit the car quickly. Not a lot of things in IndyCar get to me, but this most certainly has and I think something MUST be done. Rant over.

[TURN3]

Just got back from a different race this weekend. Missed the IRL race as the motel didn't have VERSES on it's cable line up.

Several comments.

1) Absolutely terrible performance by the safety crew. Untrained Bozos all.
2) The CART safety teams were all told their services were not needed after the merger.
3) By the way, all of the CART folks were working EMT/Paramedics in their real day time jobs. Don't know about the IRL people.
4) Please don't insult the volunteer SCCA safety people by comparing them to this bunch. They are much better.

I figured you'd eventually have a comment Starter based on your experience. It was pretty bad. Thankfully she's ok.