Don's Page

Are you going to St. Pete? I actually live in Land O Lakes. We are also going to Barber and of course Indy. Will probably do Homestead again this year also. It's pretty much a day trip so why not?

As for wings you'd be surprised at just how unnecessary they are. On high speed ovals they are more for balancing the car than anything else. With ground effects, the wing doesn't play quite the same role it did when Gurney first strapped it onto his Eagles and "Uncle Bobby" added 17mph to the track record.

hey Don. Are you from the Tampa Bay area?
I actually like the Delta wing. I really don't care for the way it looks but I think it's too important to ignore. The technical aspects of racing, costs and safety issues.
I too like the idea of open wheels. But, there are two very serious problems. One, isthat they are very dangerous. Challenge vs. safety. I would certainly go for the challenge but the real safety issue is the drivers safety (although that is certainly a very great concern) The real issue is what happens when one of these days two wheels get together and we have a 200mph race car ripping through the grand stands. If something like that happens there will be congressional hearings for sure. Something I really do NOT want. We need to be pro active and keep that from happening before the "guvment" sticks it's nose in it.
The second issue is aero drag. If the wheels are mostly enclosed like on the delta then number of things significantly reduce the costs.
The other thing that I think is that it might be time to get rid of wings. Wings are extremely expensive. Think $45K price range. They damage easily. and they are as bad as wheels for being aero dirty. Wings and tires are the two biggest contributors to screwing up the air for a following car. Which makes it harder to get good close racing.
Dallara, Swift and Lola are proposing some nice looking cars and if we take them at the word they can reduce the initial cost of the car. But, replacing wings (some of that swoopy sticky outy body work on the one Swift concept) gets expensive.

In short I'd like to see all of the aspects of the Delta Wing in a package that is a little easier on the eyes. but, I'd take it ugly to get every thing else. Especially the reduced costs (fixed and operating)

I can't say I dislike Danica but I am more than a little tired of hearing about her all the time. Good driver, has earned the right to fight but I wish the media would let it rest already.