10 Year Memorial: Drivers Who Should Be Remembered

Motor sport is a dangerous sport. Sadly deaths do occur in all sorts of motor sports.

In the next two months will be the 10th anniversaries of two of the most tragic fatalities in the history of motor racing.

1999 was a exciting year in the CART series in America. We saw the epic battle for the title between Juan Montoya and Dario Franchetti for the title. It was one of the best title races in the history of motor sports with the possible exception of the 2007 F1 title race.

However the year ended in the most sad way. By the end of the year the title race seemed pointless.

Two young drivers lives were ended. Greg Moore and Gonzalo Rodriguez.

Gonzalo Rodriguez was only in his second CART race and he had a good debut scoring a point in his first event in Detriot. His second event was in Laguna Seca. Now Laguna Seca is a track famous for one corner in particular. The Corkscrew.

The corkscrew is possibly the greatest corner when driven round properly. However Rodriguez never stood a chance to make the corner. A wire involved with the braking   system snapped making slowing down his Penske impossible. He hit the wall at around 140 mph. The car flipped over the wall.

Gonzalo Rodriguz died on impact. He was 27 years of age. The cause of death Basilar Skull Fracture. The same injury that killed Dale Earnhardt.

Rodriguez was a promising driver. Whether he was ever going to be a great will never be known.

However the second incident was possibly even more tragic. The loss of Greg Moore.

Greg Moore was one of the most naturally gifted drivers in the history of CART.

He joined the series in 1996 driving for the Forsythe team. Sadly I was only 4 at the time so don't remember his first couple of seasons but I have seen footage of him in his first couple of years.

He also won his first two races that year taking back to back wins first in Milwaukee Mile and then at Belle Isle Park in Detroit.

I can remember more of his third season which he didnt have the best time. instead of pushing on he had a similar year to 1997 some good results but too many retirements. He did still pick up two wins at Rio and at Michigan

In 1999 he didn't have the most competitive car. He picked up a win in Miami but didn't have the car most of the time to push himself into title contention

However things were looking bright for Moore he had signed for Penkse to drive for them in the 2000 season.

Moore by the looks of things was going to have a real shot at the title in 2000. He was in his last race for Forsythe team which was at Fontana.

Earlier in the weekend Moore came off a scooter causing some damage to his hand. He was allowed to race albeit from the back off the grid and using a hand brace.

Lap 9. Moore lost control of the car doing more than 200 mph. The car then flipped partially over and hit the concrete wall. There is footage of the crash on youtube but I have decided not too put the link on here. It is a truly brutal and horrific crash.

I knew things were bad. The crash was possibly the worst I have ever seen with the possible exception of the Gordon Smiley crash.

Moore died aged 24.

With all of the incidents which have happened lately I have wondered that would these accidents of taken their lives if they happened today.

Rodriguez would have been ok most likely with the invention of the HANS device specifically to prevent such injuries. Moore there is no way he could survive. There is no way a human can survive that accident.

These two drivers should never be forgotten. Both could of been future champions and both were cut down.

Safety in motorsports has been discussed widely in the past few weeks with the tragic loss of Henry Surtees and the Felipe Massa incident.

I felt that it was time to remember to those who caused the improvements in safety to occur. Without these tragedies safety would not improve.

Hopefully safety will continue to improve not just due to the recent incidents involving Surtees and Massa. But because it's what is needed to ensure that the injuries and fatalities are kept to as little as is humanly possible

I hope you enjoyed reading despite this being such a sad subject