Beyond its rescue operations, the Safety Team's resources provided a wide range of medical assistance to all members of Champ Car's extended family. (LAT photo) » More Photos

When the Horton Company’s sponsorship of the program concluded following Carl Horton’s retirement CART (and, later, Champ Car) continued underwriting the safety team program until Holmatro Safety Tools stepped up to the plate to sponsor the team last year.

No matter the nomenclature, the team was so expert at its job that it became commonplace to see rescue vehicles arriving at the scene of an accident while bits and pieces from the stricken racecars were still careening down the racetrack. Indeed, I recall watching Gerhard Berger’s spectacular crash at Imola on TV in ’89 and thinking it took an absolute eternity -- at least by Champ Car standards -- for F1’s first responders to get to the accident.

But the Holmatro Safety Team did more than tend to drivers involved in accidents. They removed the wrecked cars and cleaned up the accident scene with remarkable efficiency, ensuring as many green flag racing laps for the spectators as possible. Less spectacular were the everyday services offered by the Holmatro Safety Team personnel, from IVs for dehydrated drivers and team members, to treating fans who twisted ankles on bleacher steps and, on at least one occasion, providing electromassage therapy for a journalist suffering from a herniated disc.

Like so many aspects of what was variously known as the CART PPG Indy Car World Series, the CART Fed-Ex Championship, Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford and (finally) the Champ Car World Series, the Horton/CART/Champ Car/Holmatro Safety Team passed into memory with the fall of the checkered flag on Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. It would be nice to think some other sanctioning body might acquire the Holmatro Safety Team lock, stock and barrel and, in doing do, dramatically enhance its own safety operations.

That probably isn’t going to happen. But the next best thing would be for sanctioning bodies, racetracks and events to take advantage of the priceless knowledge and experience of some of the safety team personnel . . . which they can do thanks to the fact that Bromley, director of safety for CART/Champ Car and the Safety Team since 1988, has established Safety1Motorsports (www.safety1motorsports.com).

Of course, many (but not all) of America’s top professional motorsports series have already established rescue and safety programs that seek to emulate the Horton/CART/Champ Car/Holmatro Safety Team. In itself, that is eloquent testimony to the job the Holmatro Safety Team has performed these past 24 years. All I can add -- and I speak for everyone who has driven a Champ Car, serviced one or performed any of the thousand and one jobs associated with a Champ Car event -- is to say “Thanks.”

David Phillips is a Senior Writer for RACER magazine. For details about the current issue, visit www.racer.com.


The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, FOX, NewsCorp, SPEED, or Haymarket Worldwide.