Like the HANS device and the SAFER barrier, it’ll become second-nature as one of the key safety devices that hopefully keep drivers stepping out of their cockpits relatively unharmed following crashes for years to come.For Wilson, though, the innovation will never lose its meaning.“Even if it just saves one driver, that’s worth it,” he said. 12 Team Penske Chevy. In a way, it stems from his older brother’s own longing for the sport not to stay stagnant in its quest to become just a fraction safer. "I've had the conversation with Julia -- this is what we do, and you try to make the best plans if that ever happens," Wilson told The Associated Press upon his return in 2012. "You've got to know the risks and work out if those risks are acceptable. The injury kept him out of the season finale at Las Vegas and the race where Wheldon died.He broke his pelvis and suffered a bruised lung in the 2013 season finale at Fontana.Wilson said in 2012 his injuries and Wheldon's death did nothing to change his perspective or make him question his career choice. “Anything you place in front of the driver that’s going to take some of that force away from impacting the helmet, it’s going to make a huge difference.“Initially, it’s the same-old stomach-sinking feeling. “You always worry about every crash. Justin Wilson, who was struck by debris from an on-track incident during a race Aug. 23, succumbed to a head injury Aug. 24. Please try again© 2020 Toronto Sun, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. Five years ago, IndyCar driver Justin Wilson was killed by an errant piece of debris. Wheldon's head hit a post in the fence, and he died instantly. But I'm not going to stop trying to improve it. Just the hint of such a notion is a widely known indicator that it’s time to hang up the helmet. Unauthorized distribution, transmission or republication strictly prohibited.This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. The cars of Helio Castroneves, Josef Newgarden and Ed Carpenter all went airborne during practice sessions leading up to the race, though all three drivers walked away unscathed. It’s not like we’re too scared. We're racing hard, we're racing IndyCars and it's fast. Wilson's car veered left and directly into an interior wall. Both drivers’ crews would repair their mangled messes in just over 12 hours, have them on-track for practice the next day and geared up to race in the second-half of the weekend’s doubleheader.Such gruesome-looking — but harmless — accidents may feel increasingly commonplace in IndyCar’s new era because of what series president Jay Frye loves to refer to as an “engineering marvel”: the aeroscreen.A one-of-its-kind addition to American open-wheel racing, the product of Frye’s dream and Red Bull Advanced Technologies craftsmanship made its debut this year under a cloud of criticism about its physical look, its effects on the aerodynamics and speed of the cars and the overheated cockpits it has created for drivers.And none of that involved its primary mission: enhanced driver safety for a series that lost veteran driver Justin Wilson five years ago after a piece of debris struck him from an on-track accident he was nowhere near.But last Friday, after thousands of hours of staged behind-the-scenes durability testing and a series of offseason driver tests with next-to-no risk of an accident, IndyCar’s aeroscreen underwent its first true test.“We’re confident we can say it contributed to a positive outcome the other night,” Frye told IndyStar this week. Though they both said they never doubted IndyCar’s innovation entering the season, experiencing the technology firsthand and coming away with a torn up screen frame (VeeKay) and a nicked screen (Ericsson) is that much more reassuring moving forward.“I never really think about my own safety when I’m driving," VeeKay said. He was 37. "The race resumed after the Karam and Wilson accident with seven laps remaining and Hunter-Reay picked his way through the field. Before Justin’s incident, all I knew was no one wanted to get hit in the helmet by a piece of debris, but we were all under the impression that it had to be a bigger part of the car.”And that’s why, in a way, Wilson’s attention was drawn more toward two other safety scares in Friday night’s race.

Wilson was pronounced dead the next day.The younger Wilson brother had been close to Formula 2 driver Henry Surtees, a fellow British driver, when, in a July 2009 race at Brands Hatch Circuit in England, another driver’s spin dislodged a wheel from the car and sent the 60-plus pound piece of metal and rubber bouncing back onto the course. We're going to see. 10 September 2015. It all happened too fast for Colton Herta to comprehend. "You’re mostly thinking about staying on-track, and that the safety will just be good,” he said. On Aug. 23, 2015, with 21 laps remaining in IndyCar’s event at Pocono Raceway, race-leader Sage Karam spun upon entry into Turn 1 and slammed into the SAFER barrier on the outside wall. The series hopes its new aeroscreen will prevent that from happening again. With much of the front wing and nose of Karam’s No.