Renna

HAMPTON, Ga. -- An investigation into the cause of Indy Racing League driver Tony Renna's fatal crash at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway last Wednesday will begin this week, according to IRL vice president of operations Brian Barnhart.

"It will be a standard accident investigation the league always goes through any time we have something of a serious nature, and we'll begin with the Safety Committee that works for the Indy Racing League," Barnhart said. "We still have all of the car and will look at the digital photographic evidence we have from that."

The chief competition director for the IndyCar Series was in Orlando, Fla., at the time Renna's Dallara/Toyota went airborne and triggered a single-car crash that killed the 26-year-old driver from DeLand, Florida.

Renna, the recently-named driver for Target/Chip Ganassi Racing, was participating in a Firestone tire test.

Because it was a private test, the massive 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway was closed to the media. There is no videotape evidence of the crash that began when Renna's car lost control in the third turn, became airborne and ripped down a large portion of the fence between Turns Three and Four.

"This will be the most difficult to determine because of what was lacking -- the lack of eyewitnesses and the lack of videotape," Barnhart said Sunday night.

"It's a case where the race cars are running with the least amount of information available to you should something like this happen. The cars are well-instrumented and the challenge now is getting that data out of the computer boxes. We have to ship the Pi boxes back to England because the connectors were severely damaged in the crash."

Barnhart announced the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is now shut down for the winter and investigators have been able to gather data because of that.

IRL officials also were not present at the time of the crash. Technical director Phil Casey and director of medial affairs Dr. Henry Bock were at the University of Nebraska conducting another test on the SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Resistant) Barrier, and Barnhart was on vacation with his family in Orlando.

It was the fifth time this season a new generation Indy Racing League chassis has become airborne, either in a race or a test session. But IRL officials said the circumstance of each does not necessarily mean it has become a trend.

"You might note that three or more is a trend, but we don't have three of any similar incident within the five," said Fred Nation, the executive vice president of communications for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation.

"The (Kenny) Brack incident and (Helio) Castroneves incident both came because of wheel contact. There have been many of those situations in open-wheel racing throughout the years. When wheels make contact with each other, they go airborne. Dan Wheldon's incident in the Indianapolis 500 came after he tried to pass Sam Hornish Jr., lost control and made contact with the wall, then went airborne is similar to a crash Pancho Carter had in the late 1980s."

Nation also said Jeff Andretti's accident was triggered when he ran over debris and it was enough to lift the front end off the ground.

"Having cars get airborne and going into the fence, Alessandro Zampedri did that in the 1996 Indianapolis 500 in the fourth turn on the last lap," Nation noted.

"We also had Stan Fox's crash in the first turn on the first lap of the 1995 Indianapolis 500 and Roberto Guerrero went airborne at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 1997. To say there is a consistent pattern this year, the evidence doesn't support that yet."

Nation noted each of the four previous airborne incidents this year has been reviewed thoroughly, except for Renna's crash. He stated that to this point, the IRL has not identified anything in the structure of the chassis that has caused it to go airborne. IRL officials will begin an investigation into the crash this week but will be hampered because of the lack of videotape evidence.

"We'll rely on a number of things, including photographs, photographs of the skid marks, any eyewitness reports from the track safety workers, a look at the report on the fencing and where it struck," Nation said.

"It can pretty well be reconstructed in most ways. It is more difficult. We don't have the eyewitnesses that you have in a race and there is no video. We've had people looking at accidents for many, many years in Indy car racing and they can pretty well make a basic determination."

There were six safety trucks stationed around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the private Firestone tire test. There are no programmed observers at a tire test, which is different than an officially sanctioned IRL event where officials, inspectors and observers are stationed around the track and in communication with Barnhart and his staff.

In this case, it wouldn't have been enough to have saved Renna's life because Marion County coroner Dr. John McGoff determined the horrific impact on Renna's body caused instantaneous death.

"You can imagine going 220 miles an hour into a fence, it's almost like (being) in a plane crash with those kinds of injuries," McGoff said. "He suffered severe and massive injuries to his head and chest, and death was instantaneous. He hit the fence in excess of 100 Gs, and the human body cannot withstand that amount of G force."

Barnhart has not seen any film of the aftermath of last Wednesday's crash and said that will be foremost on his agenda when he returns to his office on Monday morning. Unlike a practice day for the Indianapolis 500, where all aspects of the track are constantly being videotaped and filmed, there were no cameras at the track.

IRL officials could install stationary cameras around the track in the future to help aide an investigation into a crash.

"We're going to readdress that," Nation said. "We don't have static cameras that cover the entire track. It's pretty difficult on a 2.5-mile track to do that in any full situation. You might capture part of it, but not the whole thing."

Barnhart believes there is no common denominator in each of the airborne incidents, each with a unique set of circumstances. But the drivers in the first four incidents survived.

"This is the only one that has become airborne without having been influenced by an outside happening," Barnhart said.

"'Appears' is the key word here. If something broke on the car or if the suspension failed, that would explain why that happened. But I'm certainly not in a position to speculate on any of that at this point in time. The hard part will be trying to put the pieces of this puzzle together into something that has some finality to it."

Renna's death is the second in the history of the Indy Racing League, which began competition in 1996. Scott Brayton was killed in practice for the Indianapolis 500 that year, just six days after winning the pole position for the race.

"This is the first fatality in an IRL-designed car," Barnhart said. "Scott Brayton's was in 1996 when we were using year-old equipment at that time. I very much believe there is not another sanctioning body in motorsports more committed, more dedicated and more safety-conscious than the Indy Racing League. It is the No. 1 priority in everything that we do."