INDYCAR

CART Texas 2001: a humanly impossible race

The motorsport fan has been used to hearing in recent years that drivers have been exposed to G-Force. Equivalent to once the force of gravity, increasing speed and downforce make numbers like 4 or 5 times the G-Force to be increasingly normal. But what if this pressure got to the point of making drivers “black out” behind the wheel? This happened in the US in 2001.

First, it is necessary to remember that there were two major categories of formula in the USA. CART was the “official Indy” until 1995, when Tony George, from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway family, announced a break with the series. With that, CART was prevented from racing the Indy 500. The philosophies of the categories were very different: CART had its fast cars with 900 hp turbo engines and they raced in mixed races and ovals. The IRL had the proposal to race only in ovals, to be a category with a lower cost, in addition to having the Indy 500.

The last weekend of April 2001 promised a lot for CART. On Friday, the movie Driven (High Speed) was released. Inspired by the category, he used real cars, drivers and teams. But the film was a box office disaster, grossing just over half of its budget, and critics hated it, with the film earning several Golden Raspberry nominations.

On the other hand, the category was getting ready for a race that promised a lot: CART for the first time would go to Texas World Speedway. The fast oval with curves inclined up to 24° was not attractive when it was opened in the second half of the 90's. But, after many negotiations, the category decided to close a three-year contract. Categories like NASCAR and IRL were already racing on the circuit, with good evidence.

CART hasn't faced an oval with such steep turns since 1983, when it raced in Atlanta, a circuit very similar to Texas. Even if the car was on high-speed circuits like Michigan, where average speeds could reach 390 km/h, it was a different situation because of the acceleration time, in the case of the Texan oval.

Because of this, the category wanted to prepare beforehand. in December 2000, the first test was with Kenny Bräck. The Swede completed 100 laps with an average of 362 km/h. G-force was measured, with some peaks of 4.5G, which is considered acceptable.

Based on the data obtained, the turbo pressure decrease was defined from 1.35 to 1.25 Bar and all cars should use a Hanford device on the rear wing, generating greater aerodynamic drag and reducing speed. Other tests were carried out in February, already with these changes and the cars reached an average of 363 km/h

But Brazilian Maurício Gugelmin warned in March that the cars were too fast and that the wing configuration was not adequate. Other factors were later discovered: Bräck didn't push the limit in the December tests and in the February tests, the riders complained that the track was too rough. So the direction of TMS did a treatment to make the track smoother. It is also necessary to point out that the tests were carried out at low temperatures.

In the first free practice session, on the 27th of April, Tony Kanaan set the fastest time, with an average of 375.845 km/h. In the second practice session, Gugelmin crashed hard at Turn 3 with a force of 113 G (video below), and reported that he passed out on impact. He had several injuries and was unable to return to racing that weekend. Out of curiosity, there is a replica of the Reynard used by him at the Curitiba Automobile Museum.

In the same session, Bräck improved his lap time, with 376.240 km/h. Several riders reported that the track was a lot of fun, having never seen anything like it before. Nicolas Minassian even reported that he felt like he was on a roller coaster. Everything looked fine, but CART doctor Steve Olvey reported that two pilots, possibly Zanardi and Kanaan, reported dizziness at such high speeds.

In Saturday's Free Practice, average speeds reached over 380 km/h. Cristiano da Matta crashed, but got out of the car without major injuries. In qualifying, the fastest car was Kenny Brack, averaging 375.697 km/h. In qualifying, drivers were being exposed to 5G forces for 18 of the 23 seconds of the lap. A meeting with the pilots was held on Saturday. Dr. Olvey asked if anyone had felt dizzy and no one raised their hand. Below is the video of Adrian Fernandez's qualifying laps, where you can see the full throttle throughout the course:

Then he asked if anyone had had a 'blackout' or was very thirsty. Then, Castroneves raised his hand, the Brazilian had felt very thirsty the night before, which was also a symptom of exposure to high levels of G-Force. After several pilots ended up talking, the reports were frightening, some of them said they lost awareness between turns 2 and 3, others who couldn't keep their balance after they got out of the car.

Olvey contacted his friend Dr. Richard Jennings, who used to work at NASA and was a professor of medicine at the University of Texas, who was shocked to hear this. The loss of consciousness was caused by the G-Force, a phenomenon that was more common with Astronauts and Fighter Pilots. The fact was not only the speed, but the inclination of the curves that increased even more the pressure on the riders' bodies.

The most serious aspect of the presented picture was that the pilots were able to continue making the route only by muscle memory. Reports on this are that exposure to more 5G for a period of 30 seconds had this effect. Dr. Olvey even detected 5.5G laterally and 3.5G vertically, an absurd amount that would be humanly impossible to resist.

Then things got more serious and the cancellation of the race was raised. But the team owners and engine manufacturer representatives refused, they wanted to find a solution. Several meetings were held, but there was no agreement: some suggested putting chicanes, others thought of slowing the cars even more.

The big problem is that CART engines were made to get the most out of their more than 900 hp. Decreasing the power further could cause the engines to fail. On Sunday morning, a meeting postponed the Warm-up. Joe Heitzler, president of CART, had several meetings with drivers, team owners, representatives of engine suppliers and sponsors, and decided to announce the cancellation. Olvey spoke of the G-Force issue, and that it would not be safe to hold the event.

The TMS owner sued CART, alleging negligence. According to him, more tests could have been carried out beforehand to verify all this. The lawsuit, in the millions, called for reimbursement of expenses for the owners and reimbursement of the public. The agreement closed in October 2001 has not been made public, but an estimated cost of between 5 and 7 million dollars is estimated, in addition to the cancellation of the 2002 and 2003 races. CART was not facing a good financial moment and this helped in the bankruptcy of category in 2003.

Felipe Meira, Brazil