Last Updated on January 15, 2023 by CCAR Staff
As tributes to late Verizon Indy Car Series driver Justin Wilson continue to be paid, there is an added urgency to enclose the cockpits of open-wheel cars.
Wilson died Monday night after sustaining a serious head injury in Sunday’s IndyCar race at Pocono Raceway. Wilson was hit by a piece of debris that flew off the car driven by Sage Karem after it crashed. After being struck by the nose cone of Karem’s car, Wilson’s car veered into an inside wall. He was taken out and airlifted to a hospital in a coma.
The talk of an enclosed cockpit — already in use by the National Hot Road Association’s Top Fuel dragsters and by drag racing boats — came to the forefront at a subdued winner’s press conference Sunday as Ryan Hunter-Reay addressed the issue.
“These cars are inherently dangerous with the open cockpit like that, head exposed,” Hunter-Reay said. “Maybe in the future we can work toward some type of (canopy). We’ve seen some concept renderings of something that resembles a canopy, not a full jet fighter canopy, but something that can give us a little protection but keep the tradition of the sport.”
On Tuesday, Motorsports.com reported FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile), the international sanctioning body, plans to hold new closed-cockpit tests next month. FIA first started work on the project in 2009 following crashes involving Henry Surtees and Felipe Massa. Surtees was killed by a loose wheel and, a week later, Massa was severely injured by a spring.
The idea of enclosed cockpits is not a new concept. More than 30 years ago, drag racer Don “Big Daddy” Garlits stunned the sport by introducing an enclosed driver area in his Top Fuel dragster. That was followed by the late Gary Ormsby in his radical streamliner, but neither made it into competition due to weight issues.
In addition to weight, among the immediate open-wheel concerns are that a driver’s movement and vision could be restricted. Furthermore, there are a number of drivers who have privately voiced fear of being trapped if a car is upside down or on fire. There’s also a concern about a lack of peripheral vision.
Unsaid, but a major thought nonetheless, is that open cockpits have a long history in the sport and are viewed as part of the sport. Yet, driver safety is at the root of the current discussion.
It will not be a cheap conversion. In drag racing, the canopies added weight (currently about 30 pounds), costs ($12,000) and a thorough overhaul of the $250,000 chassis that included new seats, padding and a fire extinguishing system.
Graham Rahal, who won the MAV TV 500 in June at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, is one of a few series drivers who are familiar with the drag racing canopy. He’s engaged to NHRA Funny Car driver Courtney Force, whose sister Brittany is in an enclosed dragster. Rahal has said that system wouldn’t work for IndyCar, due to its construction. Nonetheless, he wants to explore the option.
“With our risk of hitting fences and walls, I’d be concerned about that thing popping open when you don’t want it to,” Rahal told USA Today this week. “We’d have to be more creative.”
Then there’s the length of the event. A drag race may last 20 seconds in total time, while a 500-mile race, such as the Fontana event, lasted just under three hours.
“You can’t bake in there. We have to think how we’d (design) it and build it,” said Rahal.
Of the five current drag racers who use the canopies, three drive for Don Schumacher Racing. Tony Schumacher was the first NHRA racer who competed with it, while Antron Brown has twice escaped injury with the enclosure. The first time was at the 2014 Winternationals in Pomona.
In May of this year at Atlanta, Brown again credited the canopy for surviving.
“(The wing) headed right back at me and hit the canopy,” Brown said at the time. “It hit so hard that it buckled it but didn’t break it. I was going 315 mph at the time.
“If the canopy hadn’t been there to stop the wing, it would have hit me in the head. I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you today.”
Escaping such threats are what convinced Tony Schumacher to use the device, originally engineered by crew chief Mike Green and James Brendel, owner of Hondo Boats and Brendel Safety Capsules in Riverside.
“That’s the exact reason I use it,” Schumacher said to USA Today of Wilson’s injury. “I don’t know what’s coming off the car next to me, what’s coming out of the stands. I don’t know if I’m going to hit a bird. I’ve hit three birds. I’m going 330 mph and if (the bubble) can deflect it in some way, I’d like it to do that.
“I’ll say it for the millionth time: I’m glad it’s not mandatory, but I’m surprised everyone doesn’t use it. I wouldn’t drive a car without it.”
