Contacted channel 10 news about Wheldon tragedy

[Rick Anges]

I recieved an e-mail from Leann Schreiner Assignment Manager for Channel 10 news here in Tampa:

Hey Rick,

We are trying to do more on Dan Wheldon today. Did anyone down there know him? is there anyone at the track maybe today we could talk to?

Thanks

Leann Schreiner
Assignment Manager

I responded with:

Although Dan was not known personally by anyone down here his passing will effect the entire racing community. See we all look at ourselves as a large family whether it be Indy Cars, NASCAR, Drag Racing etc. we all have the desire for speed and know that what we all do is dangerous. When we loose someone like Dan the reality of it comes out and everyone feels a tremendous loss of one our own. I run the largest messageboard for local short track racing site in Florida KARNAC.com and people were posting on it of the loss minutes after it was announced: http://realracinusa.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17635



I myself will do a moment of silenece for him at the upcoming show this Saturday at DeSoto. You may quote me on any of this and use posts off the board if you like.



This is a dark and sad time for all of the racing community.....

She also e-mailed me wanting info on safety and I put her in contact with Craig Clarke of Track Safety you may remember him and his yellow safety vehicles at USA Speedway and other venues.

[Winger]

It would be great if they would look at the safety at our local tracks. I think Indy car racing probably has the best safety in racing, although the open cockpit cars are an issue. However, the safety at most of our local tracks is sorely deficient. I'll mention East Bay as being the exception, as I feel they have a good safety program there. Many tracks have only one EMT available for their complete facility, with minimal equipment to work with. Fire fighting equipment is often just a few fire extinguishers on the tow trucks which are often in the pit area when the races are being run. Just in the last month 2 cars completely burned at NFS in an incident and a 14 year old was seriously burned in an accident at Southern Speedway in Milton, Fl. The track in Milton had fire trucks and equipment at the track but it appears they didn't know how to use them. There's an issue with some classes of cars that are not required to run safe fuel cells. I've seen cobbled up window nets that can't be removed because they are bent in an accident, drivers wearing fire suits that are torn and/or covered with oil and dirt. The list can go on. I wish tracks would address these issues before another serious incident occurs.