I've seen more than one set of legs dangling in the air from an Indy car wreck at *under* 200 miles per hour. I think a properly built chrome moly funny car structure is stronger than the driver's compartment of an Indy car or F1.
My opinion is that funny cars, while the hardest to drive, are still the safest of the cars running 250 miles per hour plus (alky included).
Some forces and loads are not withstandable, though. The cage area of a Cup car has a lot of tubing. I remember seeing a driver (name slips my mind) hit an opening at a short track a handfull of years ago and it just about spit the driver out on the track. Kenny Koretsky vs Bruce Allen was another one that made me hold my breath.
Point, to me, is the fact that in JF's case he hit nothing and his car fell apart. Something stinks here, because there have been some extremely violent funny car wrecks where the drivers compartment was not comprimised.
For example:
Back in 1993 Kenny Mooers was driving his TA/FC (Plueger clone built by Kenny) at Bakersfield. From the left lane his car made a sudden hard right turn past 1/2 track at over 200 miles per hour. It went right through the right Armco guardrail, slid upside down on the return road and T-boned the I beam that holds the right lane score board up. The car slid only a few more feet because the I beam brought it to a violent dead stop. Kenny ended up with a broken ankle. That was the most violent funny car wreck I've seen in 37 years of participating in the sport. I thought he was a goner.
I helped load the car and not one frame rail was broken. It was pretty bent up, but no welds failed and no tubes were broken.
What has changed????
RG
