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Firestone Firehawk 600
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The Firestone Firehawk 600 was a CART series race scheduled for April 29, 2001 at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. It was scheduled for 250 laps around the oval at TMS. However, it was postponed and ultimately cancelled due to concerns about driver safety.
The race was sponsored by Firestone and Pioneer Corporation.
Firestone Firehawk 600 was to be the second attempt to run an open-wheel race on a high-banked track designed for NASCAR racing.
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The Firestone Firehawk 600 was a CART series race scheduled for April 29, 2001 at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. It was scheduled for 250 laps around the oval at TMS. However, it was postponed and ultimately cancelled due to concerns about driver safety.
The race was sponsored by Firestone and Pioneer Corporation.
Background
The Firestone Firehawk 600 was to be the second attempt to run an open-wheel race on a high-banked track designed for NASCAR racing. Texas Motor Speedway, which opened in 1997, is classified as an intermediate oval with a length of . The turns are banked at 24° oval. By comparison, the turns at Indianapolis are only banked at 9 degrees, and Michigan are only 18°.
When it was under construction, TMS was designed to have a dual-banking layout. The steep 24° banking on top would handle NASCAR races. A secondary 8° banking below was designed for the faster Indycars. CART had expressed interest in holding a race at the facility, but after closer examination of the unusual dual-banking system, decided it was not feasible.
The rival Indy Racing League had run what is now the Bombardier Learjet 550 since 1997, along with a fall race from 1998-2004. IRL cars are slower than their CART counterparts. Combined with their normally-aspirated engines and a higher downforce chassis, the IRL cars were able to handle the steep 24° bankings. The secondary banking design was deemed a failure, and in 1998, the turn transitions were reconfigured, and the dual banking was removed, in favor of a larger apron.
After the success of the IRL event, CART desired to hold an event at the track. Over the summer of 2000, negotiations were ongoing, with a tentative date of May 6, 2001 set for the inaugural event. When the 2001 CART schedule was released, the race was scheduled for April 29, 2001, and was set to air live on ABC (it was eventually switched to ESPN).
Initial concerns
The expectations for dangerously high speeds were an early concern, and even led to rumors of cancellation or moving the race to the infield road course. Unlike their IRL counterparts, the CART machines had much more power from their turbocharged engines, and less downforce, thus were expected to traverse the circuit much faster. The Texas track would have the steepest banking of any CART race since they raced at Atlanta in 1983. The high banking and sharp turns were expected to impose unprecedented g loads on the drivers and cars.
A test was scheduled for December 18, 2000 in order to address concerns.
TMS president Eddie Gossage wrote to CART management urging them to mandate certain suspension components, among others, to improve safety for the event. CART driver Maurício Gugelmin expressed that the drivers would face a challenge, but was confident that CART would find the solutions needed to conduct the race. Gugelmin also noted that "stronger parts will be necessary because of the loading generated by the banking."
Comparisons with IRL
The existing track qualifying record at Texas Motor Speedway for the Indy Racing League events was set June 5, 1998 by Tony Stewart (24.059 seconds; 224.448 mph). The fastest race lap, aided by a tow was set by Billy Boat on June 6, 1998 (23.759 seconds; 227.273 mph). The following year, the cars were slowed down by rules changes, and speed remained in the 215-216 mph range.
Scott Dixon's unaided lap during testing already unofficially broke the IRL's qualfying record.
Changes
Following the tests, very few changes were made to the cars leading up to he race. The teams that participated reported satisfaction with the information gather during the tests. The primary concerns expressed dwelled on the roughness of the circuit.
The track itself, however, underwent a few upgrades. Changes included a concerete wall on pit lane between the pit stalls and the grassy "quad oval" area along the frontstretch. The track's surface was also smoothed in some areas, in response to the complaints.
Race weekend
Friday morning practice
Going into race week, many drivers expressed apprehension about the upcoming race. The first practice session was held the morning of Friday April 27, 2001. CART officials re-measured the track for scoring purposes, and utilized a length of 1.482 miles. At the time, NASCAR and IRL utilized a track measurement of . The first practice session saw no incidents. Tony Kanaan turned the fastest lap at 22.845 seconds (233.539 mph), a full second quicker than the fastest time reported during the test sessions.
| April 27, 2001 - Morning Practice Top Speeds |
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| Rank | Driver | Time | Speed |
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| 1 | Tony Kanaan | 22.845 | |
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| 2 | Christian Fittipaldi | 23.001 | |
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| 3 | Helio Castroneves | 23.003 | |
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| 4 | Cristiano da Matta | 23.033 | |
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| 5 | Gil de Ferran | 23.035 | |
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Friday afternoon practice
The first crash of the weekend occurred during the Friday afternoon session. Maurício Gugelmin crashed in turn 3. His car got loose exiting turn 2 and hit the inside wall at 66.2 Gs. His foot became lodged between the pedals, and the car accelerated. The car slid down the backstrech and hit the outside wall in turn 3 with a force of 113.1 Gs.. The car continued to slide until it reached the apex between turn 3 and turn 4. Guglemin claims to have blacked-out during the crash, but he was not seriously injured. Gugelmin was wearing the HANS device. He withdrew, nursing bruised shoulders and ribs, and sat out the rest of the weekend.
Meanwhile, Kenny Brack upped the fastest lap of the day to 22.821 seconds (233.785 mph). Dario Franchitti logged the fastest single trap speed at the start/finish line, at 238.936 mph.
During the day, some drivers remarked on the improvements made to the surface, that various bumps had been smoothed out. Most called the track very fast, and two-wide racing and drafting was observed. Bryan Herta likened the track to a bowl, calling it "fast and fun." Paul Tracy also called it "a fast track." Bruno Junqueira said it was the fastest track he had ever driven. An awe struck Nicolas Minassian compared it to a riding a roller coaster. Helio Castroneves called the track "physical," due to the banking, and Cristiano da Matta echoed the sentiment.
The first serious concerns about driver safety occurred on Friday afternoon. Dr. Steve Olvey, CART Director of Medical Affairs, would later report that two drivers felt dizzy and disoriented after running their cars at over , and that they felt they couldn't control their cars. The identities of the two drivers were not disclosed, but Tony Kanaan and Alex Zanardi later claimed they experienced the symptoms. Adrian Fernandez also reported to the media he was experiencing dizziness. Olvey said in his 25 years of working in motorsports, it was a problem he had never experienced.
| April 27, 2001 - Afternoon Practice Top Speeds |
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| Rank | Driver | Time | Speed |
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| 1 | Kenny Bräck | 22.821 | |
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| 2 | Tony Kanaan | 22.912 | |
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| 3 | Paul Tracy | 22.936 | |
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| 4 | Scott Dixon | 22.945 | |
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| 5 | Bryan Herta | 22.991 | |
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Saturday practice
On April 28, 2001, the morning practice session saw the fastest speeds thus far at the track. Paul Tracy ran a lap of 22.542 seconds (236.678 mph) to break the all-time track record from the previous afternoon.
Cristiano da Matta was involved in the second crash of the weekend. His car crashed in turn 3, and he was uninjured.
| April 28, 2001 - Morning Practice Top Speeds |
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| Rank | Driver | Time | Speed |
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| 1 | Paul Tracy | 22.542 | |
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| 2 | Tony Kanaan | 22.556 | |
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| 3 | Max Papis | 22.604 | |
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| 4 | Bryan Herta | 22.605 | |
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| 5 | Kenny Bräck | 22.624 | |
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Qualifying
Kenny Brack qualified for the pole position at an all-time official track record of 22.854 seconds (233.447 mph). Patrick Carpentier was second, and Oriol Servia third. Twenty-four of the twenty-five cars were over , and the average speed for the field was .
During qualifying, drivers were reporting 5 lateral Gs sustained for 14-18 of the 23 seconds per lap.
| April 28, 2001 - Qualifying Speeds |
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| Rank | Driver | Time | Speed | Team |
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| 1 | Kenny Bräck | 22.854 | 233.447 | Team Rahal |
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| 2 | Patrick Carpentier | 22.864 | 233.345 | Forsythe Racing |
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| 3 | Oriol Servia | 22.900 | 232.978 | Sigma Autosport |
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| 4 | Bryan Herta | 22.931 | 232.663 | Zakspeed/Forsythe Racing |
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| 5 | Shinji Nakano | 22.988 | 232.086 | Fernández Racing |
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| 6 | Alex Zanardi | 23.003 | 231.935 | Mo Nunn Racing |
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| 7 | Gil de Ferran | 23.067 | 231.291 | Team Penske |
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| 8 | Alex Tagliani | 23.077 | 231.191 | Forsythe Racing |
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| 9 | Christian Fittipaldi | 23.079 | 231.171 | Newman/Haas Racing |
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| 10 | Paul Tracy | 23.097 | 230.991 | Team Green |
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| 11 | Cristiano da Matta | 23.105 | 230.911 | Newman/Haas Racing |
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| 12 | Adrian Fernandez | 23.116 | 230.801 | Fernández Racing |
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| 13 | | 23.120 | 230.761 | Bettenhausen Racing |
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| 14 | Tony Kanaan | 23.142 | 230.542 | Mo Nunn Racing |
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| 15 | Nicolas Minassian | 23.146 | 230.502 | Chip Ganassi Racing |
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| 16 | Dario Franchitti | 23.165 | 230.313 | Team Green |
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| 17 | Max Papis | 23.176 | 230.204 | Team Rahal |
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| 18 | Michael Andretti | 23.215 | 229.817 | Team Motorola |
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| 19 | Helio Castroneves | 23.292 | 229.057 | Team Penske |
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| 20 | Scott Dixon | 23.319 | 228.792 | PacWest Racing |
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| 21 | Bruno Junqueira | 23.373 | 228.263 | Chip Ganassi Racing |
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| 22 | Jimmy Vasser | 23.479 | 227.233 | Patrick Racing |
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| 23 | | 23.533 | 226.711 | Walker Racing |
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| 24 | Roberto Moreno | 23.580 | 226.260 | Patrick Racing |
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| 25 | Max Wilson | 24.308 | 219.483 | Arciero-Blair Racing |
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Post-qualifying
After the CART series finished qualifying, the Dayton Indy Lights series held a race at the track. Dan Wheldon and Mario Dominguez had led the speed charts in practice and qualifying, with top laps over . Damien Faulkner won the race at an average speed of 150.491 mph.
By late Saturday afternoon, concerns were rising about driver safety on the track. Patrick Carpentier went to the medical facility to have his wrist checked. As an aside, he mentioned that he could not walk in a straight line for at least four minutes after he got out of his car. An impromptu survey was taken during the private drivers' meeting and 21 of the 25 drivers in the starting field reported suffering disorientation and vertigo-like symptoms, including inner ear, or vision problems, after running more than 10 laps (or 20 laps). They also claimed that they had had virtually no peripheral vision and limited reaction time. This was due to sustained g-loads as high as 5.5--almost double what most persons can endure, and closer to what jet pilots usually experience.
Postponement
Olvey contacted Dr. Richard Jennings, a former flight director at NASA and professor of aviation medicine at the University of Texas. They discussed the known levels of human tolerance of vertical g-loads. Jennings replied that the human body could not tolerate sustained loads of more than 4-4.5 Gs. CART determined that the race could not be run at more than without raising safety concerns over G-force induced Loss Of Consciousness.
CART officials tried to take some downforce out of the rear wings of the cars and reduce the horsepower.
However, by Sunday morning, time was running out to make changes necessary to hold the race safely. The morning warm-up session was canceled. Two hours before the scheduled start, the race was postponed. Over 60,000 fans were sent home.
At a press conference, CART president and CEO Joe Heitzler did not blame the track. Rather, he stressed that officials could not in good conscience allow a race with such serious concerns about the safety of the drivers. Olvey added that the vertigo symptoms might have been exaggerated since the temperature was an unseasonably warm 80 degrees. There was fear of the possibility that drivers could suffer "grey-outs" or lose consciousness from G-LOC. It is also likely that the high g-loads would have been outside the design limits for the HANS device, which was required for all CART races at oval tracks.
Gossage was harshly critical of CART's decision. He argued that CART assured him it could run the race even though it had not conducted more extensive tests at the track. Russell argued that there was no time due to scheduling conflicts. Michael Andretti added that there was no real way to simulate ˜26 or more cars in a race. ESPN's Robin Miller later said that CART should have known there was a problem the minute the first driver was over clocked on Friday--which would have been plenty of time to slow down the cars and race safely.
CART officials held out the possibility of rescheduling the race, but there was no room in the schedule and it was ultimately canceled.
The Firehawk 600 marked the first time a CART race had been canceled outright due to driver safety issues. The 1985 Michigan 500 was postponed six days due to concerns about Goodyear's new radial tire. After three major crashes, drivers refused to participate, and the race was run the following weekend with the old bias-ply tires.
Lawsuit and settlement
Texas Motor Speedway owner, Speedway Motorsports, sued CART on May 8 for breach of contract. Damages cited included issuing refunds for over 60,000 tickets, purse, the $2.1 million sanction fee, and additional compensation for promotional expenses, lost profits, and other damages.
During the suit, it subsequently emerged that CART had ignored repeated requests to conduct testing at TMS before the aborted race. On October 16, the two parties settled for an undisclosed amount. Terms were not disclosed, but estimates were between $5-$7 million. A contract that included a race for 2002 and 2003 was annulled.
In the aftermath, the handling of the incident was widely criticized by fans and media. However, the sanctioning body was commended by many for chosing not to put its drivers in danger. The race was largely viewed as a debacle, a low point for the slumping series, and very damaging to the organization in the months and years to come. CART reported that it spent $3.5 million for the settlement and legal costs, resulting in a $1.7 million loss for the third quarter of 2001. CART declared bankruptcy and was sold in 2003, became known as Champ Car, and never attempted to return to Texas Motor Speedway. Ultimately it was absorbed into the Indy Racing League in 2008.
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