Rocky Robinson asked how the IRL could handle TMS at 226 mph, while CART
drivers couldn't at 236 mph...
G's. It's simply g's. Which is related to the speed of the car, the angle
of the banking, and the radius of the turn. Simply put, while CART and IRL
cars are fundamentally similar, the extra oomph and cleaner aerodynamics of
a CART car mean that it can run about 10 mph faster on the same track. 10
mph doesn't sound like much, but think about this: take your given on- or
off-ramp, your favorite one that you always use for that little lateral-g
thrill on the way to or from work. You, traffic and weather permitting,
always take that thing as fast as you and your car can take.
Now try it 10 mph faster at the same radius. Not so easy, is it?
Okay, CART has a bit more downforce to make all the mechanical grip happen,
but what happens to the driver? Well, the blood tends to pool in the part
of the body closest to the direction of the resultant acceleration
vector... in this case, the right hip and leg. This leads to what the
fighter pilots call a 'grey out' -- the brain and eyes don't get enough
blood, the results are tunnel vision, dizziness, and loss of consciousness.
Fighter pilots wear suits that inflate around the legs, helping to prevent
that blood pooling, tense up, and hold their breath, for the 3-4 seconds of
high (in excess of 4 g's) g loading that they endure in any one sitting.
The CART drivers were experiencing 4-plus g's for 19-20 seconds of a 23
second lap. Short term (10 laps or so), not a problem, but beyond that,
well, the fighter pilots are out of gas and looking for either the tanker
or a landing strip, but the CART drivers have 240 laps more to go.
Not a realistic proposition, or a tenable one for a safe race. Haven't we
buried enough race drivers in the last couple years? Gugelmin had a wreck
on Friday that started in Turn 1, happened in Turn 2 (66 g hit, nose to
inside wall), continued all down the back straight and finished with a
final hit (133g, tail to outside wall) in Turn 3. He got lucky -- HANS
probably played a part in that. If they'd run that race, we'd be having
another funeral this week.
Now, the timing is a little off, of course -- there should've been some
more testing at TMS prior to race weekend, and I'm sure the inevitable
lawsuit will allege just that -- but I can't fault the call to not race
given the likely results.
Jim Crider
autojim@att.net
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