Tony Stewart, this is not good

[Craig T]

Originally Posted by ZOA NOM

My prediction is that there will be no criminal charges, unless Tony had a camera in his car, which will certainly show him hit the throttle and turn the wheel, but there will be a civil suit that results in a very large undisclosed settlement so the whole thing will go away. Tony will have to live with his stupid move for the rest of his life.

My guess is there WAS a camera in TS's car and the police or competition committee have quietly taken it until the investigation is over. There has been a lot of talk about "the facts are still being reviewed". If they disclose the in-car camera, every news agency from San Diego to Bangor will be clamoring to get the footage. With in-car cameras so cheap now, I doubt there's a single guy racing Spec Miata or go karts that doesn't have one.

[skipdup]

I'm glad we can agree that sprint cars can and do "spray".
Cheers.

[skipdup]

Otherwise, none of these guys would use tear-offs...

[skipdup]

Originally Posted by emcon5

... and he didn't have another car right in front of him, like Stewart did.
...

Right in front of him? Seriously?
There's maybe 5 or 6 car lengths (maybe 4???) of open track in front of Stewart.
That's an eternity on a race track.

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by skipdup

Otherwise, none of these guys would use tear-offs...

So F1 cars must "spray" as well, then.

[skipdup]

But he was only in the shadow of #45 for 0.1ish of a second...

To me, while racing, 2 seconds IS an eternity.

[skipdup]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

So F1 cars must "spray" as well, then.

OK, point taken. Bad example. Damn you!

I've still seen WAY too many videos of these cars spraying (specifically the one in question) to believe they don't spray. You can SEE it.

[TCracingCA]

Just in case I accidently run over TS next week!


Now on the serious side-- I went over to my Brother's place and after running my garage of cars around Nurburgring on his Super Computer with the jumbotron screens, we walked that video thru frame by frame and fast/medium/and slo-mo and it looks like TS hit the brakes just a split second before he made contact with Ward and that and the tire impact pitched the car to the right (left wheel swinging outward and down the track) as the body went under the right back tire and the car as it ran him over, then the rpms went up exactly when he was under the car caused by either the wheel off of the ground or a downshift! It does look like he hit the brake just before impact, but it was way too late. The #45 car that just passed had jogged to the left to a lower line to miss him, and TS was offset out of the line of thrown dirt or tire rubber slightly higher, but high enough to get him. It looks like Ward initially made a mistake in which car, because he initially attacked the #45 car and almost got hit, but then focused on TS after the avoidance by both, and he momentarily was still looking at the #45 car as it passed and hadn't moved high enough to avoid the line that Stewart was steady on. It looked like the front tire had clipped him and he would have fell under the rear!

Overall Sad!

I know some tracks will thrown the Red and etiquette in track racing is to bring all cars to a stop instantly on the track wherever they sit. Too bad the red couldn't have been thrown when the guy was seen running all over the track!

[strupgolf]

Originally Posted by Craig T

My guess is there WAS a camera in TS's car and the police or competition committee have quietly taken it until the investigation is over. There has been a lot of talk about "the facts are still being reviewed". If they disclose the in-car camera, every news agency from San Diego to Bangor will be clamoring to get the footage. With in-car cameras so cheap now, I doubt there's a single guy racing Spec Miata or go karts that doesn't have one.

Sorry no, there was no camera in Tony's car. Why would there be one? He's one of the best short track racers in our time. He does not need a camera to record his racing. He's not one of those "go pro" types who need to record every turn they take.

[emcon5]

Originally Posted by skipdup

Right in front of him? Seriously?
There's maybe 5 or 6 car lengths (maybe 4???) of open track in front of Stewart.
That's an eternity on a race track.

Directly in front meaning line of sight to the crazy dude running around on the racing surface, not directly in front as in bump drafting.

Read this one again, particularly the part about "When piloting a sprint car during a caution flag speeds here is the typical rundown of a driver"

Originally Posted by TCracingCA

we walked that video thru frame by frame and fast/medium/and slo-mo and it looks like TS hit the brakes just a split second before he made contact with Ward and that and the tire impact pitched the car to the right (left wheel swinging outward and down the track) as the body went under the right back tire and the car as it ran him over, then the rpms went up exactly when he was under the car caused by either the wheel off of the ground or a downshift!

No gears in sprint cars, and a spool in the rear axle, so the wheel off the ground wouldn't have done anything. The brakes are the left front wheel and rear axle, and with 4 different sized tires, stomping the brakes would pitch the car to one side. Under Yellow, they are essentially idling around in gear. Yes, you hear a car rev up at the time Stewart's car kicks sideways, but there was only one microphone, it looks like 18 other cars on the track (from the point Ward stopped moving, I counted 18 other cars that passed him before Stewart came around and Ward jumped in front of him). All of them were still running, and any one of those cars could have blipped their throttle, for any number of reasons.

I know some tracks will thrown the Red and etiquette in track racing is to bring all cars to a stop instantly on the track wherever they sit. Too bad the red couldn't have been thrown when the guy was seen running all over the track!

This.

The ridiculous thing is everyone thinks Stewart did something on purpose because he has been a hothead in the past. Yes, he has done a bunch of stupid stuff, when he was angry about something.

In this case, he had no reason to be angry. He completed a pass. The guy he passed ran wide and clipped the wall and took himself out. Or Stewart forced him wide, which is one of the ways you make passes stick in any form of racing.

Stewart got the position, and was still racing, and may not have even known that Ward was out, not like he has a mirror he could see Ward loop it behind him.

Ward is dead for one reason, he got out of the safety of his metal cage, ran out on an active racing surface, in a black firesuit and helmet in the dark, and tried to pick a fight with a car.

[skipdup]

Originally Posted by emcon5

Directly in front meaning line of sight to the crazy dude running around on the racing surface, not directly in front as in bump drafting.
...

Now it's "line of site". With 5 or 6 car lengths of nothingness in front...
OK. I think I now understand where you're coming from.
Cheers.

[emcon5]

Originally Posted by skipdup

Now it's "line of site". With 5 or 6 car lengths of nothingness in front...

Sight.

Yeah, 5 or 6 car lengths. Lets do some Jethro Bodine Cipherin'

Not sure the exact class they were running, but a quick web search shows 90" is about the longest wheelbase around for a sprint car. That is 7.5'. Add some room for car in front of an behind the axles, lets call a "car length" 10 feet.

So your maximum of 6 car lengths, is, best case ~60 feet of unobstructed vision.

Remember, no gears, no clutch, so the engine is at idle, in gear. Someone on another forum did the math "Taking a guess at 33" right rear tire, 5.30 gears and a 1500 RPM idle, that comes out to 28 MPH" That is actually lower than I have seen reported, some have claimed 35-40 MPH, but lets estimate on the low end. 28 MPH is 41 Feet per second.

So from the time Ward became visible as the car in front cleared (evaded) him, Stewart would have a second and a half, with the crappy viability to the right of a sprint car, in the dark, to spot Ward who was wearing mostly black. The timestamp of the Video seems close to this.

Could Stewart have avoided him, absolutely, if he happened to be looking right where Ward was standing, in the middle of the track, as he came into view.

But in reality he probably wasn't looking right there, again see "When piloting a sprint car during a caution flag speeds here is the typical rundown of a driver" in the article linked above.

A driver popping out from behind a car directly into your path on a racetrack and charging your moving car is NOT something a driver should be expected to anticipate.

Here is the guy who was two cars behind Stewart at the time of the accident:
EXCLUSIVE: Crash Witness Says Tony Stewart Could Not Have Avoided Hitting Other Driver - Time Warner Cable News

"From what I saw, Tony did everything in his power to turn down away from Kevin to avoid him,"

And: "People say that they heard the engine rev up and he gassed it. In a sprint car, the only way to steer is you steer with the rear wheels as much as you do the steering wheel. In my opinion, what he did was he gassed it to turn down away from him," said Sparks.

OK. I think I now understand where you're coming from.
Cheers.

Yeah, reality. Occam's Razor still applies.

Where are you coming from?

[aigel]

I haven't been driving on the track a lot, but the rule has always been to stay in your vehicle unless it is on fire. If you step into a hot race track, you are asking to get run over. Too much testosterone. Walk out on a track to "confront" someone running down the track? = bringing a knife to a gun fight ...

I can't see intent in that video except for the pedestrian behavior - BTW.

B

[ZOA NOM]

Man, emcon, you should call Tony and see if he needs a good lawyer. You have an answer for everything. I'll check back here when the civil suit begins.

[cashflyer]

These engines are violent in their behaviors and extremely explosive to the smallest “twitch” of the throttle.
There is no clutch, no transmission, resulting in no stopping with the engine running and in gear, also resulting in violent movements again when the throttle is twitched. There is only a brake on the left front tire, and the solid rear axle, causing the car to lurch leftward when applying the brake
extremely limited visibility
wing panel to the right that protrudes below your line of sight blocking all vision on the right side of the car, and a nose wing directly in your line of sight in front

Obviously, this form of racing is unacceptably dangerous and must be banned.
Somebody needs to think of the children.

[VINMAN]

Zoa, did Tony steal your prom date or something?? You really seem to want to hang him based on a crappy video.

.

[dlockhart]

“You get out of the car and it’s not on fire...You're going to get a night off.”

– Steve Sinclair, IRA President

Wisconsin sprint series President: "You don't get out of your car" | News | Motorsport.com

[intakexhaust]

^^^Penalty of the night off? That's all? How about a permanent BAN of their race license. And about those of you defending TS and other knucklehead 'oh so professional' drivers.... the intentional tail bumps and turning races into a demo derby is so moronic. That's why I can't stand NASCAR. Boy, they're really great drivers... LOL.

[stomachmonkey]

You'd hate Aussie V8 Supercars.

[Macroni]

Finally... the kid's father called Steward out..... this is not what Tony intended to occur..... but responsibility is his.....