What a flight for Sting Ray Robb!
Big scare in the Italian evening of Sunday for the bad accident that occurred on the 250th and last lap of Race-2 in Iowa, on the Newton short track. In the final stages of the race, Sting Ray Robb in fact he hit the Arrow McLaren at full speed and on corner exit Alexander Rossitaking flight and overturning several times. All this happened while other single-seaters were passing behind the drivers involved, with Ed Carpenter and Kyle Kirkwood were dangerously involved in the accident, ending up spinning towards the crash barriers together with Rossi.
More ‘thanks’ to the aeroscreen
An episode in which all the fans, as happened in other circumstances in Formula 1 with the Halo, ‘thanked’ the solution of theaeroscreen introduced in IndyCar in 2020, that is, a windshield that protects the cockpit and the driver’s head. Just this year, in Long Beach, a new lighter version was introduced, but with the same impact resistance. The most evident demonstration of the effectiveness of this update was seen in Iowa, with Carpenter’s car which, in contact with Rossi and Kirkwood, is fall to the height of the passenger compartment of the latter. Better not to think about what the consequences would have been in the absence of this solution, initially criticized for its aesthetics (like the Halo) but which has already saved several lives, as in Iowa.
No injuries
Although Kirkwood had some difficulty getting out of the car, due to the presence of Carpenter’s car above his head, fortunately all the drivers involved they did not report any injuries. Only Robb was transported to the Medical Center for checksbut already while he was on the stretcher he wanted to reassure the spectators by raising his arm in greeting. The American, moreover, has already been resigned in the Italian night: “After further evaluation at Mercy One Des Moines Medical Center, Sting Ray was released – wrote the AJ Foyt team in a statement – The Sting Ray family and AJ Foyt Racing would like to extend our gratitude to the AMR safety team for their quick response, the IndyCar medical staff for their meticulous care, and to IndyCar for the high safety standards of our race cars that allowed Sting Ray to emerge from a horrific accident today. Thank you all for your well wishes. We appreciate your support.”
The pilots’ statements
So, it all started with the impact between Sting Ray Robb and Alexander Rossi, with the latter explaining what happened from his point of view: “It was the last four laps and we were out of fuelI don’t know why, and I don’t know why I was hit”he explained in an interview reported by ESPN. An actual fuel problem also noted by Carpenter and his team: “Alex had been off the pace for a couple of laps – he added – I saw it, my spotter told me, so I thought he had a fuel problem or some other problem. Sting must have noticed that he was going slower, I think that misjudged the approach speed“. An accident that made Kirkwood claustrophobic, as he found Carpenter’s car above his head: “Obviously I wanted to get out of the car as quickly as possible. When you have no control over your ability to get out of the car you become claustrophobic very quickly. It’s easy to panic when it’s that hot and you’ve just done a whole race, and we were having problems with the cooling suit. You could say that I was extremely hot and ready to get out of the car.”
#Iowa #Chills #Aeroscreen #Decisive #Heres #Pilots