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Sunday, February 25, 2001

By Chris Dolack, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

The drivers slipped through the windows into their machines, pulled on fire-resistant gloves, made certain their helmets were snug and their belts tightly fastened. The engines roared as the field took the green flag. They battled door-to-door with neatly painted, sponsor-filled sheet metal taking a beating every inch of the way.

Most of the packed grandstand stood and cheered as these machines screamed around the track in a fierce battle for the lead.

Then it happened. Coming out of the fourth turn, banging through the frontstretch under the flagstand, one driver tried to gain the inside line while the other wasn't ready to give it up. They plowed into the turn one wall.

From the opposite end of the track, it was difficult to see where the mangled fenders of one ended and the other's began. The crowd went silent.

Was this Daytona International Speedway, the same track where NASCAR Winston Cup legend Dale Earnhardt lost his life after crashing last Sunday?

No. It was a Pro Stock Truck race on a Friday night last summer at Motordrome Speedway, a half-mile NASCAR-sanctioned asphalt track in Smithton. These drivers climbed out of their trucks and walked away as emergency crews arrived within seconds. Crews cleared the track. The racing continued.

No driver has died while racing at Motordrome Speedway.

But don't think because that incident ended with the drivers escaping harm that racing on Western Pennsylvania tracks is any less risky.

On Memorial Day last year, e-mod driver Danny Burns of Imperial was racing at New Castle's Hickory Speedway, a quarter-mile dirt track, when he lost control of his car and hit a guardrail. It wasn't spectacular; he climbed out of the car on his own. After agreeing to go to a hospital, Burns, a Port Authority bus driver, was diagnosed with a spinal fracture. He died June 3.

In August 1999, supermodified driver Randy Witkum of Westford, Mass., was driving in a qualifying heat at NASCAR-sanctioned Jennerstown Speedway in the Laurel Highlands when he was caught in a multicar accident. He hit the turn one wall hard. He was flown by helicopter to Conemaugh Trauma Center in Johnstown, where he was pronounced dead.

"The ironic thing is, the same thing that makes the races exciting -- the speed, the fact that anything can happen anytime -- is also the danger side of it, too," Motordrome General Manager Chip Rowan said. "When you have those excessive speeds, the fact that you have a number of cars out there at the same time, that uncertainty makes it exciting, but it also makes it dangerous."

Depending on the type of car, drivers on most tracks in Western Pennsylvania can reach about 100 mph. Earnhardt was traveling about 180 mph when he was tapped and lost control of his car.

"Any driver will tell you we all realize there is a risk involved," said Ryan Hemphill, a freshman at Penn State who won three late model races at Motordrome last year. "Anytime you strap in and go out on a track, there's a risk involved. We're all doing everything safety-wise that we can."

In the aftermath of Earnhardt's accident -- and the deaths of three other NASCAR drivers last year -- safety at racetracks is on everyone's mind. But making sure drivers, as well as fans, are protected always has been important to those who operate speedways.

"As anybody knows, a racetrack is a racetrack. It's dangerous," said Jennerstown promoter Steve Peles, a former driver. "Everybody who competes here knows that. A promoter is going to do everything that we can do to make it as safe as possible for our competitors. We take a lot of pride in our safety."

At all the tracks in the area, local fire departments and ambulance services provide emergency responses at races. Accidents and injuries on a racetrack are treated as if they occurred on a highway.

Don Martin, who established Lernerville Speedway in Sarver as a premier track on the World of Outlaws circuit before he passed away in 1993, helped the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Department buy the Jaws of Life, a tool used for cutting people out of cars. Making Lernerville a safe speedway was important to Martin.

"We don't have a fence around [the backstretch]," said Ouch Roenigk, promoter at Lernerville, which has about a 150-foot gradual slope on the backside of the track. "That was always Don Martin's idea. If you eliminate that fence, you eliminate a lot of accidents. If a car goes off the track, it doesn't hit the fence and bounce back and hit somebody else."

Like most speedways in the area, Lernerville has firemen in full gear -- no matter what the temperature is -- in each turn when the cars are on the track. Fans along the frontstretch are protected by a heavy-duty fence.

"You really have to consider the people in the stands," Roenigk said. "We have a cable fence in our front straightaway. We did that before anybody did it. Insurance companies now -- especially for open-wheel racing -- require at least three cables. With the speeds they reach now, a chain-link fence or small post doesn't do it.

"There's always a chance, when you have something going that fast ... we keep trying to improve the measures we have."

On Friday, NASCAR revealed that part of Earnhardt's seatbelt had broken before safety crews reached his car. While the investigation into his crash is still in its early stages, NASCAR officials believe the broken seatbelt was a contributing factor to his death. Some also believe a Head and Neck Support (HANS) device, which prevents a head from snapping forward in a head-on collision, would have helped Earnhardt survive.

"I'm sure all the drivers will be looking at all their safety equipment," Rowan said. "Anytime you have a tragedy, it opens up people's eyes, and they start to take a look at what they really need to do."

Roenigk agreed.

"I think most of the drivers know the dangers," he said. "The safety measures -- the belts, the helmets, the firesuits -- people are more conscious of those than they were 10 or 15 years ago. You spend $50,000 on a car. If you go first class with your car, go first class with the safety stuff."

For Hemphill, Earnhardt's death was a little closer to home. His father, Kenny, raced against him in Winston Cup in 1980. Hemphill finished 13th in an American Speed Association race Feb. 17 in St. Augustine, Fla. He was on his way home during the Daytona 500.

"We were driving home from the ASA race and listening to it and said, 'Oh, Earnhardt wrecked.' But you never think of him going to die. I don't know what time of the night it was, but my uncle called and told us the news. We were just awestruck.

"[My dad] told me about him back then. He kind of became someone I looked up to, along with Jeff Gordon, when I started racing.

"It wasn't until Monday when I saw the wreck and saw all the news broadcasts and all the fans and it really hit me. It's such a big tragedy."