NASCAR Ticked At Dallenbach

[JoeBob]

Apparently, they didn't like that Wally made the CART Safety team look good, and NASCAR's look like what it is:

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/columns/tierney/index.html

[devilmaster]

At least Mr. Tierney wrote a balanced article.

Very simply, NASCAR has weathered driver 'unionization' by threatening to dump them all and to bring in other drivers....

NASCAR has weathered the deaths of Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin.

NASCAR has weathered the death of their biggest name in Dale Earnhardt.

NASCAR is basically untouchable. They know that, and thats the sad truth.

Steve

[chop456]

Originally posted by devilmaster


NASCAR has weathered the deaths of Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin.

NASCAR has weathered the death of their biggest name in Dale Earnhardt.



And Tony Roper and John Nemechek.

[racer2c]

"This is ridiculous," an uninjured Gordon said later. "I'm telling you, a hundred people could have gotten there" before the crew did.


The NASCAR Mafia does believe they are above any and all issues, even the ultimate i.e. driver death. That's a real crime.

[devilmaster]

Originally posted by chop456
And Tony Roper and John Nemechek.

Thx Chop. Forgot about those. And you can probably add a few more from local tracks that base their cars on NASCAR.

Steve

[Turn7]

Kenny Schraeder responded with this bit of wisdom on Inside Winston Cup.

"I'd rather have somebody that does a tracheotomy once or twice a week responding to my crash rather than some orthopedic dr. that has only read about it."

I like Kenny on that show but, I don't agree with his "view" of it. I know he knows better but, he is selling NASCAR on NASCAR TV and repeated the party line. That I don't like about him.

[devilmaster]

Originally posted by Turn7
Kenny Schraeder responded with this bit of wisdom on Inside Winston Cup.

"I'd rather have somebody that does a tracheotomy once or twice a week responding to my crash rather than some orthopedic dr. that has only read about it."

I like Kenny on that show but, I don't agree with his "view" of it. I know he knows better but, he is selling NASCAR on NASCAR TV and repeated the party line. That I don't like about him.

I saw that also. Lost alot of respect for him there. It seems Kenny just read what Hunter had to say, because it was the same thing basically, instead of looking into who makes up the SGST. All of them are trained paramedics, some are firefighters and all of them are professionals.

If I was a driver, I'd rather have people that are in tune and practice and deal with RACING accidents. If the othopedic surgeon has seen alot of and dealt with racing accidents, wouldn't that be better than some intern from the local hospital who likes racing? They both may be good at what they do, but who has the racing experience?

My 2 bits.

Steve

[JoeBob]

IIRC, all members of the SGST are certified EMT/Paramedic Firefighters. They aren't either a paramedic or a firefighter - they're both.

I also find it interesting that they always talk about Trammell being an orthopedist, but forget that Olvey is a neurosurgeon.

[Elmo T]

Originally posted by Turn7


"I'd rather have somebody that does a tracheotomy once or twice a week responding to my crash rather than some orthopedic dr. that has only read about it."


I heard that too. :shakehead

I've never been into the "Band-Aid" side of the emergency services, but I know a boat load of paramedics. I've never heard of a single one doing an emergency trache.

I am sure there are many very skilled emergency workers at these facilities. But it is not the same as a dedicated safety team. I think you can see it in how they move and work when they arrive.

[cart7]

Originally posted by Turn7
Kenny Schraeder responded with this bit of wisdom on Inside Winston Cup.

"I'd rather have somebody that does a tracheotomy once or twice a week responding to my crash rather than some orthopedic dr. that has only read about it."

I like Kenny on that show but, I don't agree with his "view" of it. I know he knows better but, he is selling NASCAR on NASCAR TV and repeated the party line. That I don't like about him.
So you'd rather have someone that shows up once a year at the track and doesn't know zip about racing accidents than someone who's there week in and week out. What a crock. Wally's special had numerous "Name", (guys that have actually won in the last 10 years or less), drivers stating exactly the opposite. Par for the course though for that show. I've seen them tip-toe around safety related issues in the past like they were walking through an Iraqie minefield. I guess when Big-Brother is watching, be careful what you speak. :rolleyes:

[devilmaster]

Just sent a letter to Kenny's official website, with the request that it be forwarded to him.

Dunno if it'll get there, but it can't hurt. Thx to T7 for reminding me about Kenny's comments. I wanted to send the email for a while. Some of my info might be off, but it gets the point across.




Mr. Schrader,

I'm a little unnerved by some comments you made a couple weeks back when you responded to a question about NBC's show about the Simple Green Safety Team in the CART series. If you need a reminder, your comments mirrored those of Gary Nelson, in which you said (paraphrased) "I'd rather have somebody that does a tracheotomy once or twice a week responding to my crash rather than some orthopedic doctor that has only read about it."

While you can be considered partially right in those comments (Dr. Trammell is an orthopedic doctor), they are farthest from the truth.

The Simple Green Safety Team, is a group of professionals who, in the eyes of NASCAR, have been dismissed without an indepth look at who they are and what they do. In my opinion, your comments showed a lack of understanding of the team. Please allow me now, to go into some depth.

For starters, please read Simple Green's article: http://www.simplegreen.com/racing/champcar1b.html The team consists of:

-custom-made, state-of-the-art rescue trucks which arrive at the scene of a crash within thirty seconds

-a million dollar mobile medical unit that can accommodate 4 critically injured drivers at a time

-traveling doctors, surgeons and rescue workers which bring valued knowledge, experience and driver medical history with them to all races

-an extensive database which holds twenty years worth of past crash and injury information to help evaluate and diagnose current crashes and injuries

Now, the biggest strength of the team is its people. The Safety Team, headed by the CART director of safety, Lon Bromley, begins its team with the director of medical affairs, Dr. Steve Olvey. Dr. Olvey, who is board certified in internal medicine, is the Vice Chairman For Clinical Affairs, Dept of Neurosurgery. His bio is here - http://neurosurgery.med.miami.edu/faculty.asp#98

Dr. Terry Trammell, CART's Chief Orthapedic consultant, has been dealing with spinal injuries since 1980. His specialties include spinal deformity, tumour-infection, and trauma. His bio is here - http://www.spineuniverse.com/mdpage.php?doctorID=1171 To respond directly to your quote above, the first vehicle that arrived at Alex Zanardi's devastating crash included Dr. Trammell. On Bryant Gumbel's HBO sports segment about Zanardi, Dr. Trammell retold a story about how he was the first out of the truck as it arrived at Zanardi's car. He said he slipped in what he first thought was oil. It was actually blood from Zanardi.

Alex Zanardi lost both of his legs in that crash. Alex Zanardi still lives and is able to drive racecars today because of that 'orthapedic doctor who only reads about tracheotomies', who was first on the scene, and with the rest of the rescue team, were able to stablize Zanardi's massive blood loss and permit him to survive.

The rest of the team, are all trained paramedics, some are trained firefighters. All these members of the Simple Green Safety Team, deal with racing accidents on a regular basis. Unlike members of a local track, who may only deal with a racing accident 2 or 3 times a year. Both groups are professional, no doubt about it. But the question becomes who I'd want as a driver. Many drivers in the CART series have talked about the comfort level of seeing the Safety Team after an accident.

Naturally, one of the problems of NASCAR, whether there was a professional safety team or not, is racing back to the yellow. The longer it takes to race back to the yellow, the longer it takes for any crew to reach a crashed car. With the now more common fuel fires seen in crashes, time to reach a car is critical, and racing back hinders that response time.

To summarize, I understand about the politics of drivers speaking against the powers that be. But to minimize the chance of loss of life in NASCAR, drivers need to push for some sort of rule change and safety team. NASCAR can do much more to try and ensure the safety of its drivers. But only the drivers can push NASCAR to do better.

I thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Steve Micallef

[cart7]

Thanks Steve, that needed to be done. I'm going to do the same. Mr. Schraeders track is just down the road from me, I'm not sure I'd attend anymore events if he dismisses the SGST like he did.

[racer2c]

:thumbup:

[devilmaster]

If anyone knows an email addy for the other yahoos like Gary Nelson, i'll happily forward the email to them too. :)

Rabbit, Racewriter, help me out here if ya got info, k? Thanx

Steve

[mapguy]

Great email sent there DM. Keep us posted if you get a response. :thumbup:

[JoeBob]

At last year's Road America Fan Forum, Terry Trammell mentioned that the team practices every race weekend when the cars are not on track. That particular weekend, their exercise was an extraction from a car on its side.

I'd be very curious to know what sort of practice NASCAR's teams do.

[Chief]

Yep, I remember him saying it. Left me puzzled too.

Great job Steve.

[SteveH]

Excellant response. Very professional. I wonder if NASCAR feels like they have painted themsleves into a corner. If they add a traveling safety team now its like admitting they have been wrong all these years. However, they should be thinking about driver safety, not egos.

[WickerBill]

Just a WAG, but could it be they're hoping to get the SGST lock, stock, and barrel if Champcar doesn't survive?

[SteveH]

Originally posted by WickerBill
Just a WAG, but could it be they're hoping to get the SGST lock, stock, and barrel if Champcar doesn't survive?

If so, that be one of the few, if any good things to come out of CART's death.

[RTKar]

Nascar likes to wave the stars and stripes but apparently has little regard for freedom of speech :shakehead

[Napoleon]

Originally posted by WickerBill
Just a WAG, but could it be they're hoping to get the SGST lock, stock, and barrel if Champcar doesn't survive?

Funny you mention that. At Mid-Ohio I was walking past where the safety team was based from my truck and that occured to me in a flash that that is exactly what is going on.

[oddlycalm]

Good letter Steve. I wrote a note to Tierney with some attaboys, and I urged him to do telephone interviews with Mario and Emerson if he wanted to do a followup piece with some impact. Even braindead NASCAR fans know who Mario is, and most will have heard of Fittipaldi as well.

I figure that folks always complain to writers, but few ever send an attaboy when a writer does a good job. Tierney was hanging his tail out pretty far considering how NASCAR operates.

oc

[cart7]

Originally posted by JoeBob
At last year's Road America Fan Forum, Terry Trammell mentioned that the team practices every race weekend when the cars are not on track. That particular weekend, their exercise was an extraction from a car on its side.

I'd be very curious to know what sort of practice NASCAR's teams do.
12 oz. bicep curls?? :confused:

[devilmaster]

Mr. Childress, you are an idiot.

Went looking for more info on safety.... Article at NASCAR.com on safety teams

http://www.nascar.com/2003/news/headlines/wc/08/13/bc.car..nascar.safetycre.ap/index.html


"Racing back to the yellow is an issue and if we're not working on it now, we should be working on a computer program to freeze the field so we don't have to race back," Jeff Gordon said.

Car owner Richard Childress doesn't think that's the answer.

"Each situation is different and sometimes some are a lot tougher," Childress said. "If the pack is still coming, the cars are still racing and are going to be strung out. Slowing them down is going to make it longer to get them all together and make it safe for the rescue crew.

"The quicker the cars get back there to the yellow, the quicker the crews can get out there."

:shakehead
Steve

[devilmaster]

Plus a second article from NASCAR.com.....

Both Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman are complaining....

Hopefully some of the other drivers will stand up and take notice.

http://www.nascar.com/2003/news/headlines/wc/08/09/rnewman_nascar/index.html

Steve

[pchall]

Ned Jarret has been touting NASCAR "safety" advance in all of his little radio puff pieces this week. Must be the NASCAR counter offensive.

[devilmaster]

I decided to get ambitious and sent a slightly revised version of my email to those in power at nascar.... Took a wild stab at it, (thanks wild stab! ;)) and I tried emailing gary nelson, jim hunter, mike helton, and (what the hell) bill france.

Unfortunately, the nascar postmaster came back and said that mike helton's email was wrong. But apparently the other 3 worked fine. (yes, bill france is one of them :laugh: )

So if you don't hear from me, I went to join salmon rushdie. ;)

Steve