[mnmracer]

Thought this was a very interesting article by racer and doctor, James Norman.

As a current racer in the Grand-Am Rolex series as well as the Continental-Tire Challenge, I called upon my fellow driver and neurosurgeon Dr Jim Lowe to help me put these deaths into perspective, and to review briefly and in lay-terms the medical causes of race car driver deaths.

Moreover, we wanted to show the progress that has been made in racing by the various sanctioning bodies and to reassure our fellow drivers that we are much safer than we have ever been, and that the sanctioning bodies are doing an extremely good job at implementing changes that help protect us from injury, and ultimately, death.

What follows here is a review — from a medical point of view — of why race car drivers die. We aren’t going to say that they died because of a suspension failure, or brake failure, we are going to tell what happened to the racer’s body that caused the death. We won’t leave it there, however, we will help you understand how the rules were changed to protect drivers so that these injuries and deaths become more and more rare.

Link: Why Drivers Still Die In Racing Crashes

[Jon Sandor]

Interesting stuff, thanks.

[Tucker]

It’s simple – if the energy of the crash goes through the drivers body, that body can’t take too much force, hence driver dies.

[Author]

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