Dallas IRL: Driver Kenny Brack involved in devasting crash

10-12-2003 | alancarp

[alancarp]

none as yet - Live ESPN Coverage (no link)IRL Driver Kenny Brack and Tomas Scheckter were involved in a severe crash with approx. 14 laps to go in the IRL season's last race. Brack was surrounded by close to 15 medical and rescue personnel after his car went airborne, struck the retaining fence, and spun horizontally perhaps 5 rotations before coming to rest.

ESPN announcers are fearing the worst. And for good reason, seeing the crash, which occurred at roughly 200 mph. No word yet on Brack's condition, though the presumption is that he is alive at the infield care center. Tomas Scheckter walked away under his own power.

The race was stopped about 5 laps short with Gil deFerran declared the winner.

[alancarp]

no news links via ESPN or Google news as yet.

[alancarp]

Kenney Brack is AWAKE in the infield care center. Unbelieveable... still no word on injurie specifics.

[MeekOneGOP]

Rut-roh ! Hope everyone is ok ...

[TomB]

ESPN just reported Brack is awake and talking to doctors in the infield care center.

[Support Free Republic]

Aww man! Enough of the fundraiser posts!!!

Only YOU can make fundraiser posts go away. Please contribute!

[NormsRevenge]

Kenney Brack is AWAKE in the infield care center.

---

wheww! thank goodness.

[clintonh8r]

What caused it? Scheckter has a well deserved rep as a crasher.

[ch53gunner]

reminds me of the crash Elliot Sadler had @ Talladega a couple of weeks ago. If you saw it, you would swear he wasn't gonna come out of it unscathed - he was racing the next week.

[alancarp]

AWAKE and ALERT in "Serious" condition - Brack is being airlifted now to Parkland in Dallas.

Cause? I didn't see which car was in front, but the two cars simply tounched left fton and right rear wheels -- I believe it was Brack's car in back, and I'd probably have to assign early blame to that rear car, though I only saw one replay.

[clintonh8r]

With Japanese GP and CART Mexico I completely forgot to watch IRL. Was there a WC race today too?

[alancarp]

man - adrenaline causing horrible typing: "left front" of rear car hit "right rear" of leading car.

Re: Sadler's crash -- yep, that was unbelievable that he walked away from it!

[alancarp]

Winston race was last night @ Charlotte (Tony Stewart).

[clintonh8r]

Tracy wins in Mexico.

[GeronL]

Horrific crash as de Ferran wins race, Dixons takes IRL title

By Bruce Martin SportsTicker Contributing Editor

FORT WORTH, Texas A horrific crash involving Kenny Brack and Tomas Scheckter forced Sunday's IRL Chevy 500 at Texas Motor Speedway to be halted six laps short of its scheduled 200.

There was no celebration of Gil de Ferran's victory in the final race of his IRL career or Scott Dixon's IndyCar series title as the mood quickly became somber.

Brack and Scheckter touched wheels on the backstretch on lap 189. The impact launched Brack's Dallara/Honda into the fence, where it disintegrated and tore down much of the safety wall.

ABC TV reported Brack is in serious but not critical condition and was awake and alert. Scheckter was uninjured.

Dixon won the championship over de Ferran, 507 points to 489.

Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves lost their shot at the title when the cars touched wheels on lap 179, causing enough damage to the rubber that both had to pit for new tires.

Sam Hornish Jr.'s bid for victory ended late. He made his final pit stop on lap 152 and was leading when he came into the pits with Dixon and Scheckter. He was first out and appeared to be in good shape as the remainder of the cars pitted.

But 12 laps later, Hornish's Dallara/Chevrolet slowed down dramatically, dropping him back in the field and out of championship contention.

Hornish was about to pit when Richie Hearn crashed in the third turn to bring out the race's final caution period. Because the yellow light was on, the pits were closed until lap 177. Hornish's crew checked the car, which was smoking with a leak.

The engine cover came off and Hornish climbed out of the yellow Panther Dallara/Chevrolet for the final time. He will join Penske Racing beginning Monday.

"I'm not really sure what happened, the car just wasn't up to speed," Hornish said. "We weren't able to get it done."

[orbitboy]

one of the worst crashes I've ever seen. it's being reported that he's in serious condition which in my opinion is a miracle. espn at the time were acting like he was a goner.

[KQQL]

It's time for INDY Cars to run on Road tracks only , instead of Oval tracks.
Like they do in the Formula 1.
OVAL tracks make sense for NASCAR only

[RayChuang88]

Actually, the fact the crash DOES look horrible bodes well for Kenny Brack. The reason is simple: all that disintergrating of the race car dissipated the impact energy away from Brack, and that's the reason why he will survive this crash.

Compare this against the crash that killed the late Dale Earnhardt at the 2001 Daytona 500. If you notice, it appeared that the impact wasn't severe, but the impact with the outside wall transmitted most of the energy of the crash inside the cockpit, hence the reason why Earnhardt was killed almost instantly from the crash.

[motor_racer]

With all due respect, I think the question of excessive danger should always be left to the participants. Almost all forms of racing are astonishingly safer than they were only a few years ago, but elimination of all risk really eliminates the need for skill and judgment.

Kenny tried to pass Tomas Scheckter on the outside at one of the fastest (in terms of cornering loads) circuits in the world. Scheckter is well known as a driver who "commits" himself to every corner. This means he tries to approach the corner so the car is balanced on a perfect knife edge -- a few moments pass when the driver can't do anything to help himself.

I think in this case, Kenny thought he had a run down the outside, and was committed himself. Tomas didn't quite have it, and drifted up. Kenny got the worst of what we call a "racing accident".

[Lunatic Fringe]