Ernie II is the best car never to take the green flag

Sporting News, The, April 2, 2001 by Lee Spencer

Mike Skinner got more than a Darlington stripe two weeks ago. It might have been much worse had emergency help not arrived quickly. As Skinner and Rusty Wallace battled for position on lap 283, Skinner was squeezed into the wall going into the third turn. With no room to maneuver, Terry Labonte slammed into Skinner's Chevrolet, which burst into flames.

Above the track in NASCAR control, Jim Bockoven dispatched the Emergency Medical Service crews from their stations. Within 22 seconds, EMS workers were attending to Skinner and Labonte and arranging their transportation to the infield care center.

As routine as the EMS teams' actions might seem, they are planned out weeks in advance by local fire chiefs. Unlike Formula One and CART racing, in which safety crews and medical staff travel from race to race, NASCAR depends on local personnel at each race site, and each local group requires training.

Each Thursday before races, Ernie Thurston, the corporate coordinator of emergency services for International Speedway Corp., meets with the local EMS teams and works on various drills to prepare them for scenarios that might occur in race conditions. This year, Thurston has a new and improved training tool to help his teaching. Dodge donated a race car that allows Thurston to give EMS workers hands-on experience in extracting drivers before they might be faced with the task on race day.

"We've been practicing safety procedures for the last 25 to 30 years," Thurston says. "We train hard. But what we lacked before was the proper tool."

Thurston was working as a life safety technician at Cornell University when he began training EMS crews at Watkins Glen in 1984 and later became director of race operations at the track before moving to International Speedway in Daytona. As part of the instruction, Thurston wanted a reusable race car to make the experience as real as possible.

So in July 1999 at Daytona, Thurston asked Dave Marcis what he did with his wrecked cars. Marcis invited Thurston to his shop and introduced him to chassis builder Mike Laughlin. Then Thurston and two of his extrication specialists went to Laughlin Race Products in South Carolina and designed the roll cage with proper cut points. Laughlin built the first chassis for the car, and Marcis donated the body.

"It didn't cost us anything," Thurston says. "The first car went to nine different tracks, and we ran almost 1,000 people through that simulator."

One of the EMS workers in attendance was Tim Culbertson, program manager for Dodge Winston Cup engineering. For more than 30 years, Culbertson worked as a fireman on EMS crews at Michigan International Speedway, his hometown track. After hearing Thurston's safety presentation, Culbertson offered the assistance of DaimlerChrysler through the use of an Intrepid modified for training. Dodge presented "Ernie II" in February at Daytona.

"This vehicle goes around to all the tracks and allows the emergency crews to practice their jobs," Culbertson says. "It has many things built into it that a fireman needs to know (about race cars) at the track. It has the kill switch for the electric power, the steering wheel that can be removed, the seat belts and how to take them off, and the knob for releasing the fire extinguisher in the car.

"The second major element is one of the key tools in fire and rescue, which is the Jaws of Life--they are like giant scissors. It's important to know where to cut these (tubes) at the right spot. If you cut them at the wrong spot, you can actually hurt people."

What makes Ernie II unique is the separate replaceable tubing on the roll cage, held together by nuts and bolts that can be cut and removed. Normally, it would be one long continuous tube.

At Darlington, Thurston had the car against the wall between the first and second turns and let the medics and firemen practice the entire extraction procedure of removing the roof, taking the driver out and placing him on a back board. After the bars are cut, Thurston replaces the tubing with a fresh piece and puts the car back together. Then the next crew practices the drill.

"Having the car to practice with has helped us immensely," says Thurston, who would like to add a truck to his garage. "It's much easier to teach the crews in advance because the last place you want to learn the procedure is during the race."

TSN's Power Poll

Rank   Driver            TSN Points   Winston Cup Pts.

 1.    Dale Gordon          613           871 (1)
 2.    Jeff Gordon          592           826 (2)
 3.    Sterling Marlin      511           823 (3)
 4.    Steve Park           510           758 (5)
 5.    Rusty Wallace        459           752 (6)
 6.    Ricky Rudd           428           743 (7)
 7.    Kevin Harvick        423           665 (13)
 8.    Johnny Benson        414           776 (4)
 9.    Elliott Sadler       385           709 (9)
10.    Michael Waltrip      364           694 (12)

Through Race No. 6, at Bristol.

For a complete list of drivers in TSN's Power Poll and an explanation of the points breakdown, go to sportingnews.com/nascar/poll.