From the air, the second turn at Pocono Raceway doesn’t seem all that imposing. The corner that left Canadian IndyCar driver Robert Wickens paralyzed – after a horrific accident last year ended his record-setting rookie season – is a broad, sweeping curve with a straightaway on either end.
But at track level on race day, it’s a much different story.
“It’s what’s called a pucker corner,” said Nick Igdalsky, the chief executive officer of Pocono Raceway. “Your whole body puckers up – and you especially know which part in particular.”
At full speed, the banked left turn can give even the most seasoned drivers pause, particularly in a cluster of cars all vying for position, in a swarm of competing interests.
“It’s a corner that gets you,” Igdalsky said. “You’re going in there at over 200 miles an hour. You turn the wheel at any point at 200 miles an hour and it’s going to be a crazy corner.”
Wickens’s life was forever altered there in August, 2018, when he tested the limits of Turn 2 early. On the seventh lap of his debut race at Pocono, he made a move to pass rival Ryan Hunter-Reay. Some saw it as a bold manoeuvre for such an early stage of the race. But for Wickens, it was in-character. He was aggressive and shrewd, and was winning races because of it.
But their tires touched for a split second and Wickens’s car was flung violently into the catchfence, shredding the vehicle to pieces and leaving the sport’s fastest-rising star with a catastrophic spinal cord injury, neck fracture and a host of other serious injuries.
Since then, one question has hung like a pall over Pocono: Is the track dangerous, or just cursed?
Less than a year and a half after the Wickens tragedy, IndyCar has walked away from the storied raceway, seemingly unwilling to wait around to find out the answer.
With three high-profile accidents in the past four years, beginning with the 2015 death of driver Justin Wilson, followed by Wickens’s paralysis and a crash this year on Turn 2 that sent another driver to hospital, Pocono leaves behind a troubled legacy.
Some drivers have called the track unsafe. Others have rushed to Pocono’s defence.
Watching this year’s race on television, Wickens lashed out angrily on social media after witnessing another pileup in Turn 2, which conjured memories of his own accident, and sent driver Felix Rosenqvist to hospital.
“How many times do we have to go through the same situation before we can all accept that an IndyCar should not race at Pocono,” he said. “It’s just a toxic relationship and maybe it’s time to consider a divorce.”
“I think the answer is clear that we should not be here,” driver Sage Karam added. “I think it’s just not meant for IndyCars.”
In 2015, Karam’s car hit the wall at Pocono, scattering parts of the vehicle all over the track. One piece of debris ricocheted off the asphalt at high speed and struck Wilson in the helmet, killing the 37-year-old British driver.
“In my opinion, that question was answered a while ago,” Karam said.
Others in the sport struck back, including retired former champion Mario Andretti, who said Pocono was “not for sissies.”
The bitterness and finger-pointing has exposed a deep divide within the sport, wounds that are not likely to heal anytime soon.
But the man now at the centre of the storm insists the track has been unfairly impugned by the accidents. He insists it is neither cursed nor excessively unsafe, despite the series of events that have unfolded there.
“Yes, it’s a racetrack; yes, it’s dangerous,” Igdalsky told The Globe. “Dangerous more than others? I don’t think so.”
Officially, IndyCar said it left Pocono purely for business reasons. There were greener pastures elsewhere, at a newly renovated track in Virginia. Meanwhile, negotiations with the Eastern Pennsylvania raceway had stalled.
“I don’t really think it was anything in particular,” IndyCar president Jay Frye said in an interview. “It was really just a timing thing.”
But the details are murky. Asked if the issue of safety entered into the negotiations between Pocono and IndyCar, Igdalsky replied: “I’m going to no-comment on that one.”
But as Wickens struggles to teach himself to walk again – hoping to one day compete again, and fighting to not be left behind by the sport – the legacy of his accident is a complicated one.
A year later, the sport is no closer to ensuring any driver would walk away from the same crash if it happened again.
After Wilson’s death, IndyCar mandated a clear ‘aeroscreen’ that will shield the open-air cockpit of the cars starting next season. IndyCar also hopes the screen will prevent other accidents, such as the 2011 death of driver Dan Wheldon, who was killed when his head struck a pole after his car was launched into the catchfence.
However, dealing with the problem of catchfences themselves has been painstakingly slow.
Originally designed to keep cars from flying off the track into the fans, the barriers of steel mesh and poles are designed to absorb energy on impact. But their design also tends to shred cars to pieces – like a cheese grater – sending debris into the track and spinning or snagging the car violently on the fence.
Wickens’s accident was just that. When his car spun like a top into the catchfence, it snagged on the mesh and shattered to pieces, tearing an 80-foot hole in the structure.
While outer sections of the cars are designed to break apart on impact, as a way of absorbing energy to protect the driver’s cockpit, the sudden jarring of the crash is believed to be what left Wickens near death and unable to walk. It is the first time in IndyCar history that a vehicle’s black box data recorder was destroyed on impact, giving an idea of the force of the crash.
But few, if any, safety changes have come as a result of Wickens’s accident – in part because the sport can’t figure out or agree upon what it needs to do with the crash fence.
Proponents of change have argued for a clear Plexiglas structure, not unlike hockey boards, but bigger, that wouldn’t ensnare the cars. However, purists doubt such a structure would be able to sustain a collision and argue the cost is simply too high.
Others put their hopes in future technology, such as the use of magnetic forces that would invisibly keep the cars from flying into the grandstand without the need for a sudden impact. But those are distant solutions that require much technological advancement and money before they become a reality.
“Quite honestly, have you heard of anything other than a fencing system?” Igdalsky said, when asked about safety improvements. “We haven’t. As soon somebody invents it, I’d be happy to take a look at it.”
The only tangible change that’s come from Wickens’s accident, IndyCar said, is the redesign of a small fire extinguisher carried on each car. Previously, the ‘fire bottle,’ as it’s known, had no set place where it had to be mounted in the car, and crash inspectors noticed it came loose during Wickens’s accident. Now, the bottle is mounted in a standard spot near the driver’s feet, so that it doesn’t turn into a projectile.
But it’s not clear if the bottle had any role in Wickens’s injuries, compared with the impact with the fence itself.
With few safety solutions to offer up, IndyCar appears ready to simply move on from Pocono, putting the tragedies and controversy in the rear-view mirror.
For Wickens, the catchfence is both a problem and his saviour.
On one hand, it prevented his car from hurtling out of the track into a grove of trees beyond Turn 2. On the other, it changed his life forever.
“It’s not hidden that Pocono is one of the older tracks in terms of safety and you could see it on the track walks that the fences weren’t quite – I guess you could say, the upkeep wasn’t there,” he told The Globe and Mail this year. “But it’s not that you need a whole lot of upkeep on a fence. It’s either working or it’s not. And the thing is, the fence did everything it needed to do. It kept me in the track.”
“I actually asked that question: What would have happened if I just sailed through it. Because I actually almost went through the fence. There were trees [on the other side]. So what would you rather do? I don’t know.”
Early on, Wickens’s crash prompted renewed talk of safety improvements, but that talk has largely died down.
In many ways, the sport has returned to business as usual: the long-held belief that racing is just inherently dangerous, potentially deadly, and that everyone involved – including drivers and fans – accepts it. Like other racing circuits, from NASCAR to Formula 1, IndyCar knows that risk is part of the attraction. When it comes to attendance and television rights, it’s partly what pays the bills.
“It’s a dangerous sport, yes,” Frye said. “We, as a league and series, do everything we can to mitigate it. And every time you have something happen, you learn something from it and then it’s our job to react to it.”
For Igdalsky, there is a cruel irony to Turn 2 that he argues has been overlooked.
Pocono Raceway, which is more of a triangle with rounded corners than an oval, was built as an homage to other famous tracks in the late-1960s. Turn 2 is a carbon copy of a turn at Indianapolis Speedway, site of the Indianapolis 500.
“The measurements and the physics of the corner are nearly identical,” Igdalsky said. “But people say, ‘Turn 2 is terribly dangerous.’ ”
However, since the track played host to its first race in 1971, the top-end speed of IndyCars has increased by nearly 85 kilometres an hour. Although the physics of the track remain unchanged, the same can’t be said for the cars.
Pocono will continue to play host to NASCAR races, in which the cars are slower and the drivers are less exposed, but for now, no one knows if IndyCar will ever be back. The legacy of Wickens’s accident may, in fact, be the end of an era in the sport.
For his part, Wickens has not moved on from racing. In the fall, he married his fiancée, Karli, leaning on a walker while he recited his vows. The new couple danced, with Karli bracing him as they swayed to the music and Wickens shuffled from side to side. It was a promise he fulfilled to her after the accident, that he would dance at their wedding. At the time of the crash, even some of his doctors thought he would never get there.
Returning to racing is another goal he refuses to surrender.
Last week, Wickens practised learning to walk with a cane, putting one tentative foot in front of the other during his latest round of intense physiotherapy. He’s still a long way off from walking normally, but it’s a start.
“I tried a couple months ago, and I couldn’t even take two steps,” he said on social media. “Today I was walking around at a snail’s pace. It’s days like today that make me want to work even harder.”
VANCOUVER – As the Major League Soccer season ticks down, Vanni Sartini wants his Vancouver Whitecaps to make a declaration — the team is ready to compete.
“The time of hiding ourselves, I think it’s over,” the coach said after the ‘Caps earned a 2-0 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday.
“We need to really say that we are here to try to be at the ball until the end and trying to shoot for the highest position. That doesn’t mean that we’re going to make it, but we have the quality to do it.”
With seven games left on their regular-season schedule, the ‘Caps (13-8-6) sit in fifth spot in the congested Western Conference, just two points out of fourth.
Saturday’s loss officially eliminated the last-place Earthquakes (5-21-2) from post-season action.
Vancouver has been on a hot streak since returning from the Leagues Cup break and is unbeaten (3-0-1) in its last four outings across all competitions. The team has not allowed a goal in those matches.
“It’s the fact that we play really well,” Sartini said of the clean sheets. “We have the ball a lot, we finish our attack most of the time in their box. So it’s really hard for the other team to attack us. And then when they attack us, in the rare times that they arrive in the final third, we’re very solid.”
Recent additions have bolstered the team’s ranks, including the club’s newest designated player, Stuart Armstrong. The 32-year-old Scottish midfielder scored his first MLS goal Saturday.
Three minutes after coming on as a substitute for Alessandro Schopf, Armstrong gave Vancouver a two-goal cushion in the 87th minute.
Midfielder Pedro Vite dished a short pass to ‘Caps captain Ryan Gauld, who tapped it toward Armstrong. The former Southampton FC player then blasted a shot into the top of the net for his first strike in a Whitecaps’ jersey.
He was mobbed by teammates in the corner of the field.
“I think everyone was happy. Also for the first goal, but also that it was an important three points,” said Armstrong, who signed with the ‘Caps on Sept. 3.
“It kind of felt a little bit like last week, when we had a lot of chances and we didn’t get the three points. So today, I think everyone was just relieved to have that two-goal cushion.”
Vancouver was the dominant team from the outset Saturday and did not relent, outshooting the visitors 19-5 and controlling 54.1 per cent of possession.
Fafa Picault also found the back of the net for Vancouver, while Gauld contributed a pair of assists.
Whitecaps goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka stopped both shots he faced to collect his seventh clean sheet of the year, while Daniel made nine saves for the Quakes.
Gauld and Picault teamed up in the 22nd minute when Gauld curled a cross in and the Haitian striker headed it down toward the net, only to see Daniel catch a piece of the shot with his forearm and redirect it out of harm’s way.
The duo connected again in the 35th minute on a Vancouver corner. Gauld swung a ball in and Picault jumped up from the pack to send a glancing header in past Daniel for his ninth MLS goal of the season.
San Jose briefly appeared to level the score in the 68th minute when an unmarked Ousseni Bouda collected the ball, froze Takaoka and tapped a shot into the Vancouver net. An official quickly raised the offside flag and waved off the tally.
Daniel kept San Jose’s deficit to a single goal with a pair of solid stops in the 82nd minute.
First, the Brazilian ‘keeper dove sideways on his line to tip away a bomb from Alessandro Schopf. He was tested again on the ensuing corner and jumped up to send a header from Picault over the crossbar.
“I think we created a lot of chances again,” Gauld said.
“We probably should have put the game out of their reach sooner. But we’d be more worried if we weren’t creating the chances. Three clean sheets in a row in the league, I think it’s a big thing for us. And it gives us a good platform to go forward.”
NOTES
Vancouver played without leading scorer Brian White for a third consecutive game as the American striker works his way back from a concussion. … Gauld’s second assist marked his 15th goal contribution (six goals, nine assists) in his last 15 Whitecaps games across all competitions. … An announced crowd of 21,309 took in the game at B.C. Place.
UP NEXT
The Whitecaps kick off a two-game road swing Wednesday against the Houston Dynamo. The Earthquakes host the Seattle Sounders the same night.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Not good enough. That was Arne Slot’s verdict after his first defeat as Liverpool manager on Saturday.
A shock 1-0 loss at home to Nottingham Forest in the English Premier League ended Slot’s perfect record since succeeding Jurgen Klopp at Anfield at the end of last season.
“We had a lot of ball possession but only managed to create three (or) four quite good chances, so that is by far not enough if you have so much ball possession,” said the Dutchman, who suggested his team should not be losing to the likes of Forest.
“If you lose a home game it’s always a setback, especially if you face a team … we never know, maybe they will go all the way to fight for Champions League tickets, but normally this team is not ending up in the top 10, so if you lose a game against them that’s a big disappointment.”
Slot won his first three games in charge, including a memorable 3-0 victory against Manchester United before the international break.
But that run came to an end after Callum Hudson-Odoi struck in the 72nd with a curling effort from the edge of the box and beyond goalkeeper Alisson.
Liverpool’s defeat leaves Manchester City as the only team with a 100% record in the league after a 2-1 win against Brentford kept the defending champion at the top of the table.
United won at Southampton 3-0 to end its two-game losing streak.
Unstoppable Haaland
Erling Haaland moved to 99 goals for City after scoring twice against Brentford.
The Norwegian’s double came after Yoane Wissa fired Brentford ahead with just 22 seconds on the clock.
Haaland scored his 98th and 99th goals in his 103rd City appearance in all competitions. And he was the width of the post away from his third consecutive hat trick after trebles against Ipswich and West Ham.
“He’s been really, really good. Yeah, I would say he’s the best (he’s been), but it’s only four fixtures (this season),” City manager Pep Guardiola said.
Haaland, who has been nominated for the Ballon d’Or, has nine goals in four league games. He has topped the league scoring charts in each of his two seasons at City since joining from Borussia Dortmund in 2022 for $63 million.
Haaland’s first goal after 19 minutes evened the game following Wissa’s opener, which stunned the Etihad Stadium crowd. Haaland turned and swept a shot past goalkeeper Mark Flekken after a slight deflection off Ethan Pinnock.
He was then too strong for Pinnock when shaking off the defender and running through for his second in the 32nd.
He was inches away in the 81st; the shot came back off the post after beating the keeper.
Rashford snaps run
Marcus Rashford snapped a 12-game barren run in front of goal as United beat Southampton.
Rashford doubled United’s lead at Saint Mary’s after Matthijs de Ligt’s scored his first for the club. Substitute Alejandro Garnacho scored a third in the sixth minute of stoppage time.
The win came after back-to-back defeats for United.
Rashford hadn’t scored since March in United’s win over Liverpool in the FA Cup quarterfinals. He curled in a shot from the edge of the area to put Erik ten Hag’s team 2-0 up at Southampton in the 41st minute.
Ten Hag said it could be a turning point for the forward.
“For every striker, they want to be on the scoring list. Once the first is in, more is coming. Like a ketchup bottle, once it’s going, it’s coming more,” he said.
De Ligt, who joined United from Bayern Munich in the offseason, headed in from Bruno Fernandes’ cross in the 35th.
It could have been a different story if Cameron Archer converted a penalty for Southampton in the 33rd. Instead, his effort was saved by goalkeeper Andre Onana.
Newly promoted Southampton was reduced to 10 men when Jack Stephens was sent off in the 79th for a high challenge on Garnacho.
Villa comeback
After three straight defeats to start the league, Everton looked set for its first win when leading Aston Villa 2-0.
Goals from Dwight McNeil and Dominic Calvert-Lewin put Sean Dyche’s team in control until Ollie Watkins struck twice to even the game.
Jhon Duran completed Villa’s comeback and sealed a 3-2 win in the 76th to leave Everton rooted to the bottom of the table and the only top flight team without a point.
Late drama
Jean-Philippe Mateta converted a stoppage time penalty to salvage a 2-2 draw for Crystal Palace against Leicester.
Leicester led 2-0 at Selhurst Park after goals from Jamie Vardy and Stephy Mavididi.
But Mateta sparked Palace’s response with a goal in the 47th, a minute after Mavididi doubled Leicester’s advantage.
Conor Coady fouled Ismaili Sarr in the box right near fulltime and Mateta was cool enough to convert.
West Ham left it even later to salvage a point in a 1-1 draw at Fulham.
Danny Ings struck in the fifth minute of added time after Raul Jimenez’s goal looked like earning Fulham the win.
Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler, the manager of the month for August, was frustrated as his team was held to 0-0 at home by Ipswich.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Restricted free agent forward Isaac Okoro has agreed to re-sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers on a three-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Okoro’s new deal is worth $38 million, according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the contract has not been signed or announced by the team.
ESPN.com first reported the agreement, citing Okoro’s representation.
The fifth overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft, Okoro is Cleveland’s best perimeter defender, often drawing the assignment of guarding the opponent’s top scorer. Okoro also has worked to improve his offensive game.
The 23-year-old averaged 9.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in 69 games — 42 starts — last season for the Cavs, who beat Orlando in the opening round of the playoffs before losing to eventual champion Boston.
Okoro shot a career-best 39% on 3-pointers, forcing teams to come out and guard him.
His agreement caps an extraordinarily busy summer for the Cavs that began with coach J.B. Bickerstaff being fired and replaced by Kenny Atkinson. All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell signed a three-year, $150 million extension in July, ending months of speculation that he wanted out of Cleveland.
Also, power forward Evan Mobley signed a five-year, $224 deal and center Jarrett Allen signed a three-year, $91 million extension.
