Sebastian Bourdais injured at Indy

[bdcardinal]

MEDICAL UPDATE: Verizon IndyCar Series driver Sebastien Bourdais was diagnosed with multiple fractures to his pelvis and a fracture to his right hip following an incident today while attempting to qualify for the 101st Running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race.

According to INDYCAR Medical Director Dr. Geoffrey Billows, Bourdais will undergo surgery on his pelvis this evening at IU Health Methodist Hospital. Bourdais was on the third lap of his qualification run at Indianapolis Motor Speedway when his Dale Coyne Racing No. 18 GEICO Honda made hard contact with the Turn 2 SAFER Barrier.

Statement from team owner Dale Coyne: “Sebastien is in good hands here at IU Methodist Hospital with the staff and now we just wait for him to recover.”

Additional updates on Bourdais’ condition will be released when available.





It is amazing that being in such an accident that having a broken pelvis and hip is all that happened to him. Praying for a speedy recovery. The safety crew was at his car very quickly after the accident.

 

[robertcope]

Totally agree, it is amazing that someone can survive that. Hope he buys a round for all the engineers that designed the safety gear he uses!

 

[billt460]

He was VERY LUCKY. That had all the makings of a Gordon Smiley repeat. A few more degrees of angle and it would have been. Even a safer barrier isn't going to help much, when you go from 235 MPH to 0 in 36". Indy is a very treacherous place.

 

[DeepFriar]

Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
MEDICAL UPDATE:
It is amazing that being in such an accident that having a broken pelvis and hip is all that happened to him. Praying for a speedy recovery. The safety crew was at his car very quickly after the accident.


You have to hand it to Indy. All my life I have watched this race and, IMHO, nobody does faster, better rescue work, F1 included. Add my prayers to all the others.

 

[bdcardinal]

I always held the IndyCar saftey team in high regard, then I read Dr Steve Olvey's book and they instantly became the biggest heros to me.

 

[bbhero]

Exactly billt460. That safer wall helped but at such a great deal of speed and tough angle it was almost a fatality there. I hope that is all of the bad wrecks we see at Indy this year.

 

[A_Harman]

I've looked at the crash replay a few times, and his big mistake was trying to save it when the rear end stepped out. They tell drivers at Indy to just steer left when the car gets loose, and it will hopefully spin into the infield. The thing that I thought was weird was he didn't try to steer away from the wall once the car hooked up again. Maybe it happened too fast in real time for him to make a second move. Slow motion replay lets you play Monday morning quarterback.

Gordon Smiley's crash was made worse because his impact angle was nearly 90 degrees. Bourdais' was more like 45, which would have made a 30% reduction in impact force than if he had gone straight in. And he went into the soft wall instead of concrete. When Smiley had his crash, pole speed was about 207, and pole speed this year is 232. Considering the difference in kinetic energy, varying with the square of speed, the difference would be an increase of 25%. It is impressive that Bourdais survived, considering his crash was only about 5% less severe than Smiley's, when considering impact energy. Much progress has been made in car construction and track design. Soft walls save lives.

 

[billt460]

Physically he was very lucky. Mentally, that's another story. Many drivers don't mentally recover after an accident like that. Especially at a track like Indy, where virtually every corner could be your last. Especially when qualifying. It happened to both Rick Mears and Dale Earnhardt Jr. After one severe accident too many, they both hung it up. Bourdais isn't getting any younger. He's had a relatively long, somewhat successful career, and is almost 40 years old. And he is not going to heal like a man with the same injuries in his early 20's. This crash will weigh heavily on his mind. I wouldn't be too surprised if he retired shortly. You look at surviving incidents like this from a different perspective when you get older.

 

[bdcardinal]

I think if anything he pulls back from IndyCar and focuses more on the endurance racing. BTW in the 00's I was firmly in the Paul Tracy camp so Bourdais was the face of evil, but now I am a fan of his.