Last race of the 2003 season, Texas Motor Speedway, Turn 3, lap 188 of 200: Team Rahal driver Kenny Brack, piloting a Honda-powered Dallara racer at about 220 mph, touches tires with the car driven by Tomas Scheckter. Brack's car goes airborne then slams into steel fencing above the retaining wall and disintegrates. Miraculously, Brack survives the 93-g crash but sustains multiple injuries, including a broken back. Twenty-six-year old driver Tony Renna wasn't so lucky. His Toyota-powered Panoz G-Force car soared through catch fencing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during a private test, just 10 days after Brack's crash. Renna died from his injuries. An onboard Accident Data Recorder pegged the car's speed at 227 mph just before he lost control. The two "flying" crashes prompted Indy Racing League officials to cut engine displacement from 3.5 to 3.0 liters (effective at the 2004 Indy 500), a move designed to trim speeds by about 10 mph. It worked. Buddy Rice in 2004 won the pole with a four-lap average speed of 222.024 mph, while Helio Castroneves did so at 231.725 mph the year before.
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