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August 19, 1999 -Jane Smith Lakeland Fire Photo’s The front page photo of the crash at Lakeland's USA International was
not put up in meanness or disregard to the racers involved. If family and
friends of these drivers were hurt, that was "not" intentional. Karnac
would never and I repeat never, do anything to hurt a driver or fan since
Karnac was created for you.
The photo, even though I am sure is hurtful to these drivers, is
important. Racing is not all fun and as a wife, mother, husband,
father, grandfather, grandmother, we all know it can be deadly.
If we were in Winston Cup racing, right now the track owners and
safety crew and techs would be on a warpath to come up with a
solution to this crash and if all possible, try to never have it happen
again. When one of their drivers is hurt, someone comes up with
something new to protect them just a little more.
But, we are local short track racers. We don't have the power of
Winston Cup. Yes, we have rules and safety requirements but
sometimes that is not always enough. Lakeland's accident was
not the fault of the driver or the track. It was a mistake that was not
intentional since no one would ever want to hurt a racer.
My prayers and thoughts have been with all the drivers, hurt or not, that
were in this accident. And you have the power to find out what was wrong
safety wise and hopefully have it corrected for all your teammates and future
teammates. Safety is all our business especially for the families and
friends of any race car driver.
As a child, I was also burned badly. Not my face or hands but my whole back
side. I did not sit down for months, could not, and for a child, that was
hard. I had to have bandages changed constantly and each time, changing the
bandage would pull off the scabs and I would scream. So I know what it is
like to be burned. But my parents figured out how and why I got burned and
corrected the problem and it NEVER happened again. We owe Richie
Anderson that too and all the drivers.
Karnac would never hurt anyone intentional and I am truly sorry that the photo
hurt someone. Racing is the greatest sport, full of wonderful people and it
is those people and their families that we want protected and safe when they
climb thru that window and put on that harness. We need more tracks like
Lakeland and their trainned safety crew and good safe equipment for the cars
and the tracks that they run.
Safety is everyone's business and the photo showed what can happen.
It is up to the fans, racers, families and track owners to figure out why this
happened and to see if we can prevent it from becoming a flaming inferno
again.
Jane Smith
Associate Editor
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