Brayton Believed Speeds Should Ebb Next Year’s Cars Will Ditch Turbocharging, Easing Pace

A year ago, Scott Brayton joined the outcry to slow the Indy race cars. He was one of the fastest to turn a lap at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and he knew the dangers of his job.

“It’s time to do something that’s right,” Brayton said before qualifications in 1995. “First of all, for drivers, we have to be most concerned about continuing to improve safety. By slowing them down, it’s definitely going to help.”

Brayton, 37, who qualified for the Indy pole for the second year in a row, was killed in practice Friday when his car’s right rear tire went flat, sending him spinning into the second-turn wall at more than 230 mph.

Brayton knew that in Indy racing, a reduction of speed really means a slower rate of increase. At least that’s the way it has worked out when the rule-makers tried to legislate safety.

In the long run, the designers and builders of the cars, engines and tires have found ways to overcome every restriction. Now, straightaway speeds hit more than 240 mph and lap speeds are approaching that plateau, but not for long.

As part of the new Indy Racing League, a new chassis and engine formula will go into effect in 1997. The cars no longer will be turbocharged, and with the cut in horsepower, the speeds are expected to drop significantly.

“Records are made to be broken. I’ve held the track record here before and it was broken. It’s thrilling to get them, it’s sad to see them go, but it’s what makes this business go,” Brayton said before qualifications last week.

“I would say there’s a good possibility that whoever holds the track record here, it’ll hold for quite a while, given the four-liter, natural-aspirated formula. You’re not going to be up to these horsepower levels with four liters, ever.”

How much slower?

“It’s very hard to speculate that … but maybe 15 mph,” Brayton said last week. “I think a 215-220 (for the pole).”

The race cars, even at 230 mph, already have proven themselves to be vastly superior and safer than their ancestors.

The last driver death during the race was in 1973, and the two deaths in practice or qualifications between that and Brayton’s death were because of the cars’ nearly head-on angle of impact against the Speedway’s concrete walls, not the speed.

In 1994, there were five crashes in the three weeks leading to the race - down from 13 in 1993 and 15 in 1992 - and the most serious injury was a concussion to Paul Tracy. Last year, there were seven crashes. So far this year, just three.

Even at faster speeds, Brayton said, the cars are much safer than they were a year or two ago.

“I lost an engine (during 1995 testing) and it was a really big crash, and I walked away,” Brayton said.

In 1985, when Brayton set a track record at just more than 214 mph, Jack Beckley, the chairman of the U.S. Auto Club’s technical committee, said the limit had been reached.

“The speeds are getting unsafe for the race track. Everybody figured 200 mph was the ultimate, then 210. There’s gotta be a stopping point to keep them in the ball park.”

But that same year, the most experienced Indy driver in history, A.J. Foyt, insisted any speed reduction would be temporary.

“You’re not going to slow speeds down. Records are made to be broken,” Foyt said. “Some way, we’ll figure out how to run fast. The name of the game is to run fast.”