VisionAire 500K

The VisionAire 500K was an Indy Racing League race held at Charlotte Motor Speedway from 1997 to 1999. During the 1999 event, three spectators were killed when debris from a crash on the track went into the grandstands. The race was stopped and canceled, and the event was removed from the Indy Racing League schedule.

Race history

The first open wheel race was at the first Charlotte Speedway built in Pineville in 1924. This is where indy races were held.

USAC

In 1980, USAC announced plans for a 500 km event at Charlotte Motor Speedway,^[1] the first Indy car event at the facility. The plans, however, were scrapped when USAC entered into a joint sanctioning effort with CART, and the 1980 calendar was reorganized.

Indy Racing League

In 1996, the upstart Indy Racing League tested at the facility, with plans to add it to the schedule in 1997. The first test saw speeds in the 207 mph range,^[2] already an unofficial track record. Soon after the test, a night race was added to the IRL schedule starting in 1997.

The first two runnings were considered largely successful with Buddy Lazier and Kenny Bräck winning the mid-summer Saturday night 500 kilometer (208 lap) races. CBS carried the race on tape delay.

1999 fatal accident

In 1999, the race was moved from July to the first weekend in May, the last race before the Indianapolis 500. On the 61st lap, a crash led to a car losing a tire, which was then propelled into the stands by another car. Three spectators were killed and eight others were injured in the incident.^[3]

With crowds estimated at 50,000, the track opened extra sections of track to accommodate the additional spectators. As reported on the radio broadcast, sections of Turn 1 and Turn 4, and the first eight rows of all open grandstands, were closed by the track for safety. At 8:50 p.m., during lap 59 of the race, Stan Wattles suffered a suspension failure that shot his car into the wall, shearing both right wheels off the car. John Paul, Jr.'s car subsequently hit the debris field and the contact sent Wattles' right rear wheel and tire assembly over the catch fence. Three spectators in the vicinity of the section which had been opened for the overflow crowd were killed from the flying tire debris. Scott Harrington spun to miss the debris field and the accident is often described as a 3-car crash, however, Harrington's car made no contact with the wall or other cars and was undamaged.^[4]

Buddy Lazier was leading the race at the time of the caution. He pitted a few laps later to change tires because of a puncture. Greg Ray then took over the lead. A long caution resulted from the lap 62 crash. After 25 minutes under yellow, race officials brought out the red flag, and stopped the cars in the pit area. Medical helicopters needed space to land to aid the injured spectators. At 9:15 p.m., the halted race was scored through 79 laps. Shortly after the red flag was put out, track and series officials announced the fatalities had occurred, and cancelled the remainder of the race.

As the race was stopped on Lap 79, the race was declared abandoned and all statistics were scratched from official record. Spectators were offered ticket refunds, and participants were reimbursed entry fees and selected travel costs. The league does not recognize the race in its historical archives, and omitted the event in its count for the 100th race celebration in 2004.

That incident, and a previous incident in July 1998 in a Champ Car race at Michigan which also killed three spectators, led to new rules requiring cars to have tethers attached to wheel hubs in an effort to prevent such incidents from happening again. New catch fencing was also invented, curved so debris could not sail as easily into the grandstands.

Controversies

Two weeks after the incident, a controversy boiled at the 1999 Indianapolis 500 after Sports illustrated published an article by Ed Hinton about the tragedy, and the general topic of safety in motorsports.^[5][6] The magazine's editors in New York^[5] published the article accompanied by an AP photograph taken at the scene. The photo featured a security guard standing next to two dead bodies in the grandstands covered with bloody sheets, and blood covering the steps.^[6][7] The photos drew the ire of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George, and they pulled Hinton's credentials for the 1999 Indy 500. After a few days, the credentials were restored, when it was determined that Hinton was unaware of the photos, and when free speech/censorship issues were raised.

Later in the year, a short series of bombings took place in Lowe's stores in North Carolina, injuring three, and prompting some to think there may be a link with a relative of one of the victims. When George Rocha was arrested for the bombings, he claimed that he was angry about the crash at the speedway, but he later confessed that it was retribution for being caught shoplifting and an attempt at extortion.^[8]

Past winners

Season	Date	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Race Distance		Race Time	Average Speed (mph)
						Laps	Miles (km)
USAC Championship Car history
1980	September 28	Event cancelled
Indy Racing League history
1996-97	July 26, 1997	Buddy Lazier	Hemelgarn Racing	Dallara	Oldsmobile	208	312 (502.115)	1:55:29	162.096
1998	July 25	Kenny Bräck	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	Dallara	Oldsmobile	208	312 (502.115)	1:58:11	158.408
1999	May 1	Race abandoned after 79 laps (spectators killed)

References

External links

• Champ Car Stats: Charlotte Motor Speedway archive