Increasing Safety in Auto Racing: A Winning Formula?

▪ 2002

      Automobile racing aficionados had never denied that part of the attraction of their favourite sport was the element of perceived danger. The skill of the drivers, the talent of the car constructors, and the rules of auto racing's sanctioning bodies were designed to balance the danger and thus maintain the element of exciting competition.

      In 2000–01 that balance was sorely tested by four deaths within nine months in National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) events; among those killed was Dale Earnhardt, Sr.—one of the icons of the sport—during the Daytona 500, an annual classic watched by millions via television. (See Obituaries (Earnhardt, Dale, Sr. ).) Adding to the problem was the postponement at Texas Motor Speedway of an entire Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) event because the drivers said they could not stand gravity loads at speeds in excess of 370 km/h (230 mph). The race had been scheduled despite a CART official's warning that the speedway's tight corners and high banks were unsuitable for CART vehicles.

      In truth, NASCAR, CART, the Indy Racing League, and Grand Prix (Formula One) racing organizations had been keenly aware of the thin boundary between excitement and mortality for years. Money and racing's own success had altered the equation, however. Auto racing had become desirable entertainment for vast television audiences and filled racetracks accommodating crowds in excess of 100,000. The fan base reached far beyond the original cadre of enthusiasts. NASCAR, for instance, negotiated an eight-year contract for $212 million with NBC-TV and Fox TV. The races regularly won weekend ratings battles.

      Drivers in the top series, who could earn more in one afternoon than the president of the U.S. did annually, remained the most frangible components of the man-machine combinations that provided the excitement and the dollars. The challenge facing auto-racing organizers was to find ways to enhance driver protection without lessening the sport's entertainment value.

      To accomplish this, the sanctioning bodies continually refined rules prescribing vehicle construction, driver attire, the manner of racing, and the conditions on the track. In Earnhardt's accident, however—as well as in other crashes that had claimed the lives of NASCAR drivers Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin—the forces generated on the vehicle and other safety equipment upon impact were not survivable. Among the solutions floated for increasing driver safety were construction of “softer” walls at racetracks, but the idea that had attracted the most attention was the HANS (head and neck support) device. Now mandated for CART and its subsidiary series, the device was developed in the early 1980s by engineer Robert Hubbard and former sports car champion Jim Downing. The device, a collar-and-yoke system worn around the driver's neck and down the front of the shoulders, permitted normal movement of the head and neck but limited the extreme front-to-back and side-to-side movements that could make a crash fatal. Downing stated that his company equipped over 800 drivers from all series with the HANS device in the months immediately following Earnhardt's death. NASCAR made HANS-type devices voluntary, but most drivers, including Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and other stars, utilized it. NASCAR also announced the establishment of a research facility at Hickory, N.C., to develop new technology for race cars and driver equipment.

Robert J. Fendell

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