|| *Comments on the 1999 Visionaire 500K:* View the most recent comment <#29> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. webmaster posted: 03.10.2010 - 6:10 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) From RaceFanX: "A crash between John Paul Jr and Stan Wattles caused some debris including a wheel to go over the catch fence and into the crowd where it sadly resulted in the death of three spectators. When the deaths became known the race was immediately stopped never to be restarted and stricken from the IRL records with no points awarded and Lowe's Motor Speedway never hosting another IRL race. The listed results are where everyone was running when the race was terminated. Some good did come of the accident however, it led the IRL and CART and later almost all high-level professional racing series to start using wheel tethers. It also led a redesign of the track's catch fences to be more curved at the top to better stop debris. " 2. Darrell posted: 03.10.2010 - 6:21 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I remember seeing coverage of the wreck, but not knowing who died. I had assumed that drivers were killed, but couldn't find anything. A tragedy nonetheless. 3. Smokefan05 posted: 03.10.2010 - 7:21 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Did people get hurt or die a MIS because debris come off the cars? 4. indyfan posted: 03.10.2010 - 8:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Under chassis, R stood for Riley & Scott, not Reynard :D 5. Anonymous posted: 03.10.2010 - 8:30 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "3. Smokefan05 posted: 03.10.10 - 7:21 pm Did people get hurt or die a MIS because debris come off the cars?" Yes, three people were killed and six more injured by a flying wheel when Adrian Fernandez crashed during the 1998 US 500. 6. Smokefan05 posted: 03.10.2010 - 10:58 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Yes, three people were killed and six more injured by a flying wheel when Adrian Fernandez crashed during the 1998 US 500." I thought so. 7. RaceFanX posted: 03.11.2010 - 1:27 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Had this race counted it would have been the only IRL start for former SCCA Trans Am standout/Bobby Rahal protege Mike Borkowski. 8. Anonymous posted: 03.12.2010 - 2:51 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Because of that and now and days that large tracks like Fontana and Michigan to name a couple are going away from open-wheel competition are becauase of safety issues. That is why they never ran there again. 9. Indycar1 posted: 03.15.2010 - 12:38 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Another safety issue of Indycars on Superspeedways is that it is easy for cars to interlock wheels. And when that happens at 215 to 220 mph they get lanched high in the air, and usually in the catch fench. For example Kenny Brack 2003 at Texas. Ryan Briscoe 2005 at Chicagoland Pedro Gomaz 2007 at Homestead in the lights race. This race is an example of the IRL caring more about fans than CART. or vise versa depending on your point of view. When Adrian Fernandez had his Accident at Michigan in the 98 US 500. They didn't cancel the race, or strike the race from the records. They ran the race to it's conclusion, and this race has the desition of being the Track record most lead changes of any race at MIS. 10. RaceFanX posted: 03.15.2010 - 11:04 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) CART took a lot of flack finish that race, I wouldn't be surprised if that played into tthe IRL's decision here 11. Jimmie Johnson's Assassin posted: 03.19.2010 - 3:43 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) However, if the results (or, running order at the time of the tragedy) count for nothing in the end, would that mean that the fans died in vain? 12. Anonymous posted: 06.26.2010 - 9:47 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "For example Kenny Brack 2003 at Texas. Ryan Briscoe 2005 at Chicagoland Pedro Gomaz 2007 at Homestead in the lights race" The latest crash involving an IRL car going into the catch fence was Mike Conway's at Indy this year. 13. nascarman posted: 09.02.2010 - 7:21 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The pole speed was 222.039. There were 3 cautions for 33 laps. 14. 00andJoe posted: 09.26.2010 - 8:43 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @JJA: I would agree. However, I would suspect the reason the race didn't count wasn't because of a "It Never Happened" attitude - which would be *extremely* crass, IMHO - but, rather, because the race hadn't reached halfway (which would have been Lap 104). In NASCAR, at least, a race counts as "official" when it reaches halfway - I suspect the IRL had the same policy, although I'm not sure. If it had reached the halfway point or beyond, I'd suspect it would have counted in the records. So, the race wasn't really "struck from the records", per se, but rather never entered into them, because it never reached the point where it would have been eligible to have been counted. 15. Madison posted: 12.30.2010 - 3:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "12. Anonymous posted: 06.26.10 - 9:47 pm "For example Kenny Brack 2003 at Texas. Ryan Briscoe 2005 at Chicagoland Pedro Gomaz 2007 at Homestead in the lights race" The latest crash involving an IRL car going into the catch fence was Mike Conway's at Indy this year." Not to mention Dario's flip at MIS back in '07 16. KurtBusch22Fan posted: 04.15.2011 - 4:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @Madison: I don't think he hit the catch fence, though. 17. Indycar1 posted: 05.11.2011 - 11:36 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) No Dario Did not hit the Catch fence, at Michigan in 07. 18. Greg G posted: 08.23.2011 - 8:19 pm Rate this comment: (1) (1) IRL rules are like NASCAR. The race must go half way to be counted. 19. Anonymous posted: 11.06.2011 - 10:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) To add to Indycar1 and Anonymous list of cars that hit the catch fence at speedways, the Dan Wheldon fatal crash in 2011 in Las Vegas at the end of the 2011 season that was cancelled like this race. 20. RaceFanX posted: 11.09.2011 - 5:41 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsors that were missing the first time: #20 Tyce Carlson- Greenelefe Resort #11 Billy Boat- Conseco / Harrah's #98 Donnie Beechler- Big Daddy's #3 Andy Michner- Aero Services #81 Robby Unser- PetroMoly #6 Eliseo Salazar- Cristal / Fubu #18 Mike Borkowski- Timba #66 Scott Harrington- Vector Technologies #33 Roberto Moreno- Warner Brothers Stores This race just turned up on YouTube 21. RaceFanX posted: 12.02.2011 - 3:28 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The chassis / engine / tire data for everyone in this race blanked when the Marlboro Challenge CART races stated to be uploaded. The combinations for this race were as follows... #2 Ray- D/A/F #4 Goodyear- G/A/G #51 Cheever- D/I/G #99 Schmidt- G/A/F #98 Beechler- D/A/F #8 Sharp- D/A/G #91 Lazier- D/A/G #28 Dismore- D/A/G #55 McGehee- D/A/F #14 Brack- D/A/G #11 Boat- D/A/G #30 Boesel- G/A/F #7 Gregoire- G/A/F #42 Hollansworth- D/A/F #44 Buhl- D/I/F #3 Michner - R/A/G #6 Salazar - G/A/F #12 Calkins- G/A/F #33 Moreno- G/A/G #92 J. Unser- D/A/G #21 Ward- D/A/G #66 Harrington- D/I/F #18 Borkowski- G/A/G #10 Paul Jr.- G/A/F #19 Wattles- D/A/G #81 R. Unser- D/A/F #25 Hamilton- D/A/G #20 Carlson- D/A/F 22. Kent posted: 12.04.2011 - 10:53 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Why is it named 550k if it was only scheduled for 312 miles (500km)? 23. Anonymous posted: 03.21.2012 - 6:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The victims were Jeff Patton, 32, from Hickory, N.C. Randy Pyatte, 21, from Connelly Springs, N.C. Dexter Barry Mobley, 41, from Statesville, N.C. 24. 44andJoe posted: 12.15.2012 - 1:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Was the Visionaire 500K, not 550K. 25. 44andJoe posted: 12.15.2012 - 2:28 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) #11 sponsor: A.J. Foyt Racing (was a plain red car). 26. 44andJoe posted: 12.15.2012 - 2:50 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Leaders: Greg Ray 1-40, Buddy Lazier 41-49, Ray 50, Lazier 51-64, Ray 65-79 Laps led: Ray (56), Lazier (23) Cautions: Laps 1-8, #25, #20 accident quadoval Lap 40-46, #81 accident turn 2 Lap 62-79, #10, #19, #66 accident turn 4 27. Rexrobe posted: 01.08.2013 - 11:24 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Attendance: 40,000 28. SpeedWorld97 posted: 03.12.2016 - 10:53 am Rate this comment: (5) (0) In the wake of the fatalities in this race, well-known Anerican motorsports journalist Ed Hinton, who then wrote for Sports Illustrated and was covering the Winston Cup race in California that weekend, was assigned to write a column calling for safety improvements for both CART and the IRL. His argument included tethering the wheels of the cars similar to the then-new mandate in F1 as well as raising the height of race track catch fencing that included a sloped top to better keep debris out of spectator areas. He wrote the article while in California and sent it to the editors of Sports Illustrated in New York to be published in the May 10, 1999 issue. However, huge controversy arose when Sports Illustrated added the title "Fatal Attractions" to Hinton's article, responding to both the IRL Chatlotte fatalities and CART's Michigan spectator fatality the year prior, as well as accompaning the article with a gruesome picture of a security guard standing next to blood-soaked tarps covering the dead bodies as well as the blood-covered steps in Charlotte Motor Speedway's grandstands. Immediately, the IRL and Tony George took the article as an attack to the Indy Racing League (despite the fact that the IRL made the right choice in canceling their race unlike CART at Michigan in 1998) and stripped Hinton of his media press pass for the Indianapolis 500 later that month as well as all other events at the Speedway, including NASCAR's Brickyard 400. Once it was realized that Sports Illustrated, not Ed Hinton, was responsible for including the graphic picture, Hinton was permitted to return to the IRL paddock, though this came after the 1999 Indianapolis 500. Below is the highly controversial Sports Illustrated article (WARNING: The article contains graphic images; view at your own risk): http://www.si.com/vault/issue/703762/110/1 29. Rich posted: 09.17.2020 - 7:51 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dave Calabro, Jack Arute and Arie Luyendyk were the commentators. Calvin Fish and Vince Welch were the pit road reporters. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: