Sunday Focus: Short Track, Short Life.

     There are at least 44 auto racetracks in Alabama, ranging from the huge NASCAR track in Talladega to lots of small dirt tracks. One of the latter is in Selma, a track where a driver died this month.

Selma Motorsports Track. Strip is at top/Google Earth

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      39 Year old Darren Bryant of Montgomery died when the S10 pickup truck he was racing was hit from behind at the Selma Motorsports Park on May 14th. The District Attorneys office continues to investigate, but believes it to be an accident. 

     The New York Times published an article on Saturday about deaths at other tracks, including a little girl too young to drive a regular car who died in a Florida racetrack  at the age of 15.

"Since 2002, when NASCAR made head-and-neck restraints mandatory, at least 141 people have died on short tracks, and dozens of others have sustained major injuries, making this the most dangerous corner of American motorsports. Those figures — based on police reports and news media accounts — surpass previous estimates and highlight the consequences of lax rules and scant safety protections."

(Vintage motorsports track)

 A memorial event is planned for Bryant at the Selma racetrack on Saturday.

There are other lists of tracks in Alabama that differ from the one linked at the top of this posting. None that I could find list the Selma track. 

[Sunday Focus is a regular feature of www.timlennox.com]

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