Almost the totality of media immediately convicted with headlines that included some form of "...Stewart killed..."
Only Tony Stewart and perhaps an onboard camera know what happened with certainly but at the time I, like almost everyone I know who is in any way involved in motorsport, wondered why Kevin Ward Jr. would crawl out of a wreck and run around a live racetrack looking for a fight with a moving car.
Clearly, I'm not a oval racing enthusiast...
Now, aside from a shocking lack of any safety protection for infield workers, public or drivers, as pointed out by Motorsport Safety Foundation's founder Henrique Cisneros, I would argue that when you have a form of racing where policemen are regularly on hand to restrain drivers, you have a systemic problem.
Motoring journalist Jack Baruth, explores in a piece in his personal blog:
...I think young Mr. Ward knew this was his chance to get on television and raise his profile as a driver. I think it was a calculated move. I think he wanted to maximize a situation. Face it — even if Stewart hadn’t hit him, it would have made highlight reels and would have put his name on people’s lips...
...So Kevin Ward, Jr. saw a chance to make a name for himself. To get lucky. To be the kid who faced down Tony Stewart on the highlight reel. But in his haste to do that, he didn’t think about the risks. Which, I would add, is a characteristic of nearly all successful drivers. If you sat and thought seriously about the risks, you’d never go wheel-to-wheel racing at all. He made a quick decision, a judgment call. That’s the way racing works.
It cost him his life.
Wasn't Kevin Ward Jr. trying to give what so many of those so quick to condemn Tony Stewart, exactly what they wanted?
Certainly, it was not racing because crowds are regularly whooping and hollering with delight at this kind of crap.
I'm assuming that these dirt tracks don't have waiver forms to sign when entering the track/event like some road courses in the Northeast? Do these waivers cover one driver if they make a mistake and cost the life of a fellow driver? I'd like to know the fine lines/small print about this.
ReplyDeleteThe media is tearing Tony apart as I expected, because it makes it an "easier" story for the public to understand. "Wealthy and Successful Racer/Businessman Kills Young Aspiring Driver on Track". He's the bad guy. It's not really about getting the complete story straight, but how the story appeals to the public. Yes, Tony has a record for being aggressive on track, but honestly, he wouldn't be where he is today in NASCAR without being that way. He'd be one of the back markers in the 43-car NASCAR field. Tony's previous track record is pretty irrelevant here. For all we know, the car in front of Tony's car that swerved to avoid Ward could've hit and killed him. What would have happened then? Would that racer be facing jail too?
I understand Ward's father is grieving, and it's horrible to lose your son at such a young age. Every parent can agree with this. But his father was indeed aware of the risks involved with racing, and it wasn't his son's first rodeo. It is absurd to think Tony should face "10 years in prison" as Ward Sr. has repeatedly stated. If Tony saw him, I would think he would not have been an idiot and try to scare him. I could be wrong. But time and time again, people are forgetting that Ward... GOT OUT OF THE CAR. In mostly all forms of motorsports, YOU STAY IN THE CAR, unless it's on fire. You remain strapped in with the safety equipment, just in case another car collides with your car that's stopped. But Ward didn't. He got out while the drivers and their cars were still moving at considerably quick speeds. He had an intent to make a seen by walking ON THE RACING LINE. In NASCAR, yes drivers have thrown their helmets at cars passing by in anger, but once they're with officials on the bottom of the track. It could be just me, but not once have I seen a driver walk into the racing line looking for a confrontation. Ward took a risk that he paid the price for. The risks involved from his actions clearly did not balance out with the results he was looking for. I never was really a fan of Tony Stewart, but the mention of "jail time" is fluff and hot air. Or so I hope... If that's the case, oval track racing as well as many other forms of motorsport may lose it's fans and competitors in the future. Not a good thing at all.
I a few southern boy NASCAR fans who attend the races just to see the carnage from the wrecks.
ReplyDeleteGranted many fans have the scanner and listen to the communications and observe the strategies and drama live, but NASCAR was built on danger and that is still a major draw.
There must have been a yellow flag thus no 'racing line'. I know those sprint cars are twitchy but at yellow flag speeds an expert like Stewart knows what he is doing and from what I see in videos appears to be him trying to trim the kid in a close pass but flubbed it while clearly not swerving to avoid him.
ReplyDelete2nd degree manslaughter is the logical charge Tony must face, and maybe his lawyer can work it from there.
Hopefully after this NASCAR's attendance and tv ratings will continue to spiral even more down the toilet. A guy on YouTube has dubbed this event the Redneck Zapruder film, and he's right. Tony "Full of Baloney" Stewart saw the kid. He knew he was walking around out of the car. As you come down the front straight, under caution!, a driver simply looks left and can see that, in turn two, there is a car turned around and the driver is out of the car. Because Tony deliberately chose to not slow down and drive on the inner most line down low he clearly was driving high on the loose dirt and planning to scare the kid. Unfortunately for Tony, the kid called Tony's bluff, and didn't get out of the way quick enough. The courts will give Tony a free pass on this one cause the kid got out of the car, but Tony killed him. Case closed.
ReplyDeleteGreat write-up and accomplishment Sergini! Two of the events on my bucket list. VLN is on my sight for 2015. Need to talk....
ReplyDeleteHave you learned what a sprint car is? How it drives? What it is like to sit in one? What the visability is like? Do you know they have no clutch are direct drive and are built to slide sideays in order to turn. Do you realize in order for Tony to miss Jr. Running towards him he had to gas the car and make it slide to turn it away. Do you also.realize Tony had less than a second to do this?
ReplyDeleteIn addition.to the you tube talk show link below. Go find some sprint in car footage and watch it. I spent an afternoon listening to Bubba and watching a lot of videos of sprints racing so I could understand what I was seeing
In the accident video.
Bubba The Love Sponge Show / Tony Stewart Inciden…: http://youtu.be/8DvlWHDwrgw
I too think, and have thought since first seeing the video, that TS should be banned for life (from all motorsport) and should count himself lucky that he is not in jail.
ReplyDeleteThis whole "he got out of his car" and thus had it coming is pure and utter BS. BULLSHIT, I say. NASCAR has been tolerating drivers getting out of their cars and making a spectacle of themselves for decades. Hell, you could say that modern day NASCAR was built on such an event: Yarborough vs. Allison (The Romp in the Swamp (c), pat pend, TM). We have seen it escalate through drivers intentionally taking another out in retaliation (he had that coming); throwing helmets and gloves at other drivers (on an "active" track) and fist-fights in the pits. If that is what we saw on TV, I wonder what some of the paddock stories would have to say about what we don't see. We have even seen drivers walk down the track, in a corner (and a steep corner, Bristol I think) to point to his butt and to another driver.
OK, back to TS and KWj. Yes, KWj got out of his car. As soon as his car was stopped (for whatever reason; TS running him off the track or not (I think it was more or less a racing incident, but I don't watch sprint cars); the yellow flag would have come out. at this point all the remaining drivers need to slow down, which they did. Now, it is normal for KWj to be upset, having his car ruined and to show that he gets out of his car and tries to show TS that he is not happy. Unless KWj actually either: 1) threw himself under TSs car or 2) actually slipped on the race track and full under TSs car; TS did not take all the precautions necessary.
Much like the Tagliani - Tracy fight of 2006 (the Oi Vey in San Jose), sometimes the "stronger" guy needs to take car of the little guy. I say that in these cases, much like much North American traffic law, the pedestrian has right of way. TS should have done everything to avoid KWj, including adjusting his mental attitude to account for a furious KWj. TS was half a lane higher than the car ahead when he hit KWj, why? KWj could be seen trying to move to the outside of the track as TS was approaching.
This whole story of "sprint cars have wings", "its dark and it is difficult to see" is more BS. If the track is that dark races should not be run. If the issue is the cage and the wing blocking view, as the accident happened at the end and to the outside of a corner, KWj would have been on the outside of TS. Because of this TS has to have seen the stricken car and whatever else was around the area pass through his field of vision from left to right.
TS is (was, IMO) a big time NASCAR hero, he should have been able to better control himself. The accident was avoidable and should have been avoided, but it was not. Did TS do it on purpose? Probably not. A case of "red Mist"? Probably. Is "Red Mist" and excuse? No. Red Mist is never an excuse.
One word- rednecks.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the late Kevin Ward is most to blame for this terrible accident. Walking on to the track the way he did is just utterly stupid and is the result of a young guy who couldn't keep his head in an intense situation. Frankly though, I think the quote you posted by Jack Baruth is bullshit. No one will ever know what was going on inside Kevin's head, but what I saw was a young guy jacked up on adrenaline and testosterone who lost his cool at a crucial time. I find it hard to believe that his ridiculous behavior was some kind of calculated move done in order to gain fame and make a name for himself.
ReplyDeleteThey aren't just twitchy, but also not designed to go right or easily perform avoidance manuevers. These Sprint cars are built to understeer with the front, and rotate with the rear (oversteer) to slide through the turn, hence the right rear tire being longer than the left rear at 18" wide. Unfortunately, they are NOT like go karts which are balanced and can usually avoid something in an instant. They DO NOT swerve easily. How do I know this? I have had conversations over the past week with just under a dozen Sprint car drivers (with years of experience) about the agility level of these cars. All their answers were pretty universal. Almost all of them said "They are setup a certain way to slide around the oval tracks. You ask it to do anything else it wasn't setup for in a quick instance and you're in trouble (out of control)."
ReplyDeleteTony is not the best driver in the world. Not even close. He said it himself that he enjoys driving these Sprint cars because it's a challenge for him. For people to "expect" him to be able to overcome the way the car is setup to avoid Ward "easily" is not too realistic.
Manslaughter? NOT LOGICAL at all. Who was the one who initiated this incident? If you respond with only "Tony", you should reconsider your thoughts. They were racing hard on the track and Ward was on the high line getting passed. I give Ward credit for trying to hang in there up high. Tony slid up a bit too high from the middle line but that's close racing and wheel-to-wheel contact does happen often. Both of them had part in the vehicle contact part of this... but WHO was the one who exited his car when it was extremely risky?
If some guy lost his temper and walked out on the highway to get after you, is it you who is to blame for hitting him? People aren't meant to be standing in the middle of highways with live traffic passing by. Same with race tracks, aside from safety personnel who work cautiously to avoid incidents like this. STAY in the freaking car!
You cannot deny that if Ward HAD STAYED IN THE CAR and waited to show his emotions/anger in let's say, pit lane? He would've surely still been here.
Is it me or do people/media feel the need to blame someone for this incident? It seems the mentality is "Because only two drivers were involved in the initial spin/wreck, and only Tony Stewart is living out of the two of them after the second 'incident', he should be to blame for the death of Ward." Also, because he has people who hate them and envy his success in the motorsport world. That also hurts Tony here.
Why must someone face criminal charges and possible jail time? To provide compensation to the family in some way for the loss of their loved one (the driver)? That's a whole different story. Maybe Tony could start a program to fund young drivers like Ward who haven't quite made it big, and give them an extra boost to getting closer to the big time? To put the program in Ward's name may not fly too well with most people.
I'm not an expert. I never have driven a Sprint car and don't plan to. I had questions about how these cars perform so I asked a bunch of what I consider expert drivers. All this is bs on how "Tony tried to scare him..." or "He tried to put Ward in his place." If this was an actual go kart or more agile vehicle, then I would completely agree that he could've easily avoided him and I'd have a different perspective on this whole thing. Cheers.
Really, since this conversation is all based on unclear evidence, the conversation should be more one of "If someone was to walk out onto a dark interstate in front of 60mph traffic, purposefully approaching oncoming cars, would we charge the driver of a vehicle that hit that pedestrian with manslaughter?"
ReplyDeleteNo. No, we would almost certainly not, unless there were other exigent circumstances like DWI or otherwise impaired driving.
There exists a certain amount of personal responsibility, that old desire to continue one's existence, that should be factored into this conversation, and Ward was not exhibiting that desire, clearly. I may ride my motorcycle at triple digit speeds on the interstate without a helmet, which is a certain degree of reckless behavior, BUT I DON'T PLAY CHICKEN WITH OR ANTAGONIZE SEMI TRUCKS because, like stepping in front of oncoming traffic, that confrontation will never end well for someone on a motorcycle.
Just because you're participating in willful competition doesn't remove you from needing to have basic control of your own actions. While this also extends to TS, his choices were far more limited than Ward's, in that he was only ever going to continue moving forward. He had only one direction in which to move (to some degree either way left or right, true enough, but still mostly forward). Ward continued to move down the track and towards oncoming traffic. He could have stepped back, left, right, jumped, whatever, he could have done anything else - literally stepped in any other direction - but he chose forward and into traffic.
Tony Stewart's forward-moving-car was a known. It's speed was a known(even at idle and cruising it would be doing 40mph+ depending on gearing/track). Ward is the only factor in this event that was an unknown, a fully random variable, and he chose to move into the known path of oncoming traffic.
If you jump in a lion cage and you get eaten, can you totally blame the lion?
ReplyDeleteThough it's not clear in the video, I believe Junior went for the "window", despite the car's speed, and Smoke went for the gas to move away. Sadly, being open wheels it didn't end well, with the driver being clipped by the rear wheel. And hence the slide. And not the other way around as some claim. Anyway, bottom line is, you don't pick a fight with a moving car. And I'm not a Tony Stewart fan. Or any other NASCAR driver in particular...
ReplyDeleteMade me recall this incident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p80LinnP9ME
ReplyDeleteCircumstances and actions were very different though.
Bowman Gray isn't a race track, all they do is fight there.
ReplyDeleteNASCAR has been tolerating drivers getting out of their cars and making a spectacle of themselves for decades.
ReplyDeleteThis wasn't a NASCAR event. What they allow is irrelevant here.
I say that in these cases, much like much North American traffic law, the pedestrian has right of way.
Then you're just as stupid as Ward was. He ran out IN FRONT of at least three different cars, the only one that ended up hitting him by chance had a famous guy in it that he wanted to get a message across to. It got him killed in the end. That's why you're taught as a child to not play in traffic. If you pruposefully and knowingly run in front of moving cars on a street then the fault will be deemed yours, not the person that hits you.
This whole story of "sprint cars have wings", "its dark and it is difficult to see" is more BS.
It's only "BS" because you don't know anything about sprint cars. Ignorance gets people like you a long way.
"If the track is that dark races should not be run."
Formula 1 cars have very restricted vision, and so do all the P1 cars in the WEC. If that's they way you believe then there should be zero car racing anywhere.
If the issue is the cage and the wing blocking view, as the accident happened at the end and to the outside of a corner, KWj would have been on the outside of TS. Because of this TS has to have seen the stricken car and whatever else was around the area pass through his field of vision from left to right.
This is speculation. Since it's clear you have little to no grasp over how Sprint Cars work or what the racing is like, I wouldn't put much faith in your opinion.
TS is (was, IMO) a big time NASCAR hero, he should have been able to better control himself. The accident was avoidable and should have been avoided, but it was not.
In what manner did Stewart not control himself, and why do you lay all the blame on the person that wasn't a fucking idiot and not purposefully run in front of at least three different racecars? How can you possibly justify that opinion?
A case of "red Mist"? Probably. Is "Red Mist" and excuse? No. Red Mist is never an excuse.
Words that unfortunately Kevin Ward Jr can no longer live by. He got killed because he was stupid and thought that running in front of racecars that have piss poor vision in them in a dark racing suit on a dark background was a good idea.
Tony is not the best driver in the world. Not even close. He said it himself that he enjoys driving these Sprint cars because it's a challenge for him.
ReplyDeleteTony Stewart isn't the best driver in the world, but he's not the least bit challenged by these cars. You are clearly making that quote up because Tony does these races for FUN not because he sees them as challenging.
Hi guys,
ReplyDeleteI've got a corsa lite with the following problems;
Nearside Rear Registration plate lamp not working
Offside Stop lamp not working
Front Windscreen washer provides insufficient washer liquid
Offside Steering rack gaiter split
Inner Track rod end ball joint has excessive play
Nearside Front constant velocity joint gaiter damaged to the extent that it no longer prevents the ingress of dirt etc
Can someone give me a price on the cost of fixing this? With labour cost and without?
Thanks,
Rupert Lewis
No Fault Accident