Rapid Response, by Dr. Stephen Olvey and a Rant on NASCAR Safety

Before I get into this lengthy post, which eventually becomes a rant, I would like to congratulate Scott Pruett, Juan Pablo Montoya, Salvador Duran, and the whole Ganassi Racing organization on their win at the 24 Hours of Daytona today.

I recently finished reading RAPID RESPONSE, MY INSIDE STORY AS A MOTOR RACING LIFE SAVER by Dr. Stephen Olvey. While many NASCAR fans probably don’t recognize Dr. Olvey, fans of open wheel racing almost certainly do. He has had a pivotal role in the development of emergency response in motorsports, to the medical care and recovery of race drivers, and to the general field of driver safety. RAPID RESPONSE has to be one of the most unique motorsports books I’ve read. At first thought, many might think that the topic wouldn’t be all that interesting, but the book is fascinating. Steve Matchett, Larry McReynolds, and Jeff Hammond wrote about the behind the scenes work of the racing teams, now Dr. Olvey has written about the often overlooked safety workers and medical teams.

Olvey follows the development of driver safety and medical response in USAC, then CART, and finally Champ Car from what began as almost non-existent and haphazard to the high standards that are almost taken for granted today. He describes how driver safety devices advanced from the beginning of fire suits to the HANS Devices of today. He charts the development of safety teams from contracted hearses to the safety teams of today with their specialized training and equipment. Perhaps most interesting, though, is the development in how racing injuries are treated. Initially, racing injuries were treated much like injuries from a typical automobile accident. Now racing injuries are recognized as having unique qualities and there are doctors that specialize in treating them. Furthermore, doctors such as Olvey and Trammell, Professor Sid Watkins and his team with the FIA, and others have and still are studying motorsports injuries to improve driver safety.

Along the way, there are glimpses of the development and the turbulent history of open wheel racing in the United States. Olvey witnessed the USAC/CART split, the rise of and the fall of CART, and the CART/IRL split from an inside perspective. Through the stories of treating drivers such as A.J. Foyt, Roberto Guerrero, Rick Mears, Emerson Fittipaldi, Nigel Mansell, and Alex Zanardi, there is insight into motorsports personalities (and in some cases their families).

What becomes obvious in reading RAPID RESPONSE is how NASCAR has lagged behind other sanctioning bodies in driver safety and emergency response at the track. NASCAR still lags behind other sanctioning bodies in these areas despite the high levels of popularity they have soared to. They still rely on local emergency responders to make up the safety teams at races despite the fact that it has been recognized that treatment of racing injuries differs from the treatment of regular automobile crash injuries. They still don’t have a traveling medical team to treat injuries and evaluate drivers after wrecks before clearing them to race when it has been recognized by other sanctioning bodies that such a medical team is more beneficial to driver safety and health. If we look back at NASCAR’s previous history in adopting driver safety programs, don’t look for safety teams and medical teams to become part of NASCAR’s traveling entourage anytime soon.

In my opinion, there can only be two reasons why NASCAR won’t adopt the traveling safety teams: Greed and Cowardice. NASCAR and the France family are unwilling to spend the money to create the teams. Despite the fact that NASCAR is at the height of its popularity and making money hand over fist, making the France family rich in the process, they won’t use some of that money to improve rescue response and care for the drivers that make the money they covet so. If in fact, money is an issue, why don’t they find a sponsor to fund a safety team? Surely an emergency equipment manufacturer or manufacturers could be found to do so, their names could be prominently displayed on the safety trucks and they would get national exposure every week. NASCAR is afraid to accept the liability of taking the responsibility of rescue and treatment of the drivers. Even though today’s world is lawsuit happy, I would hope it would be unlikely that a driver would sue after treatment. So far this hasn’t seemed to be a problem in CART/Champ Car, the IRL, the NHRA, or with the FIA. Unfortunately, NASCAR is more concerned with making and keeping money than they are with the welfare of the drivers that bring in the crowds and therefore the money. If they won’t create these teams simply because it is the good and right thing to do, maybe they should do it to protect their “product.”

Now that I'm finished ranting, I would like to mention that this does hold some interest for radio enthusiasts. While there isn't any frequency information in the book, Olvey does mention how radios are used by the safety teams and some of the brevity codes that the safety teams use.

Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net