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Topic: Leffler accident caused by rf stop falling off
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June 20, 2013 at
10:01:00 PM
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06/20/2013
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According to sources at Maxim the right front stop fell off the car causing the accident.The stop was found and the bolt was tight. This is a problem that no one wants to fix. Why dont the sanctioning bodys mandate the use of some kind of retaining system. The fix only costs $50 from Speedway Motors for both front bars. I would like to know if anyone has had this happen to them. This safety concern needs to be addressed before we lose another driver.
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June 20, 2013 at
10:16:10 PM
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didn't that happen to wimmer at Kokomo
It's not if! It's when and how bad
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June 20, 2013 at
10:41:28 PM
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Is that not the same or pretty close to the same problem Brandon Wimmer had a week or two ago while racing at a WoO race just after his heat race finished when Johnny mistakenly blamed Sammy for wrecking him?
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June 20, 2013 at
11:06:27 PM
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How legit is this? are you 100%? can anyone provide more detail, an explanation for those of us that don't get to work on a sprint car, pics? My understanding was that he went hard in to the wall most likely caused by some kind of mechanical failure, then the car whipped around & the left side of the cockpit hit the wall hard. which impact caused his death? I have a lot of questions.
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June 20, 2013 at
11:19:52 PM
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Didn't TMAC have this happen not long ago?
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June 20, 2013 at
11:40:35 PM
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Reply to:
Posted By: Some Guy In Texas on June 20 2013 at 11:19:52 PM
Didn't TMAC have this happen not long ago?
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Many of the teams already run these. Just makes good safety sense.
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June 20, 2013 at
11:55:46 PM
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Reply to:
Posted By: larryitis on June 20 2013 at 11:06:27 PM
How legit is this? are you 100%? can anyone provide more detail, an explanation for those of us that don't get to work on a sprint car, pics? My understanding was that he went hard in to the wall most likely caused by some kind of mechanical failure, then the car whipped around & the left side of the cockpit hit the wall hard. which impact caused his death? I have a lot of questions.
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Sometimes in life you might have to settle for less than 100%.
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June 21, 2013 at
01:19:26 AM
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I have had this happen. When i went to running a 1050 bar in the right front and with ti front stop it would walk off, had one come off, put new ti stops on and within 2 races same thing. I thought this was well known its been going on for a while. The easy fix is run steel or alum front stops, havent lost a stop nor has it walk on me.
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June 21, 2013 at
07:35:53 AM
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Reply to:
Posted By: larryitis on June 20 2013 at 11:06:27 PM
How legit is this? are you 100%? can anyone provide more detail, an explanation for those of us that don't get to work on a sprint car, pics? My understanding was that he went hard in to the wall most likely caused by some kind of mechanical failure, then the car whipped around & the left side of the cockpit hit the wall hard. which impact caused his death? I have a lot of questions.
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I had heard the stop was found in turn 4. I guess it has been confirmed. Still an unfortunate accident. No one is to blame. We run a simple piece of 1/4" allthread through ours with washers on the ends to help hold stop in place. It is a pain when changing bars, but if it could prevent this it well worth it. RIP #LEFturn
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June 21, 2013 at
09:45:48 AM
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The reason they came to that conclusion is brcause all the other bolts were tight and still connected to what they were supposed to be connected to. The rf stop came off causing the car to whip around. When the left side hit the wall it caused his head to whip really bad causing extreme stretching of the major tendons in his neck and crushing his C1. Apparently he had shoulder support on his seat but nothing for his head. He had the head support removed early because he was complaining it limited his vision.
Brandon McLain
United Sprint Car Series Driver
2014 Season
National Rookie of the Year!
National Points - 8th
Southern Points - 3rd
Asphalt Points - 3rd
18 Races, 3 Top 5's, 14 Top 10's
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June 21, 2013 at
09:51:52 AM
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Reply to:
Posted By: BMcLain21 on June 21 2013 at 09:45:48 AM
The reason they came to that conclusion is brcause all the other bolts were tight and still connected to what they were supposed to be connected to. The rf stop came off causing the car to whip around. When the left side hit the wall it caused his head to whip really bad causing extreme stretching of the major tendons in his neck and crushing his C1. Apparently he had shoulder support on his seat but nothing for his head. He had the head support removed early because he was complaining it limited his vision.
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I have a picture of his car as my desktop, and you are right! It does look like the helmet side supports were removed from (or left off of) the seat, and he was running head nets instead.
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June 21, 2013 at
10:09:49 AM
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He still had his nonwing tendencies of looking left a lot. He actually had the seat that could have saved his life at his shop and didnt want to use it
Brandon McLain
United Sprint Car Series Driver
2014 Season
National Rookie of the Year!
National Points - 8th
Southern Points - 3rd
Asphalt Points - 3rd
18 Races, 3 Top 5's, 14 Top 10's
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June 21, 2013 at
10:52:59 AM
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Can someone share what the solution is that comes from Speedway please? I would like to look into it to make sure it doesn't happen to me.
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June 21, 2013 at
11:00:12 AM
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My guess is they're talking about the torsion stop retainer kit 940-37007. It retails for $25.99.
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Moose-Blocks-1200-Torsion-Stop-Retrainer-Kit,46854.html
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June 21, 2013 at
11:00:25 AM
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The kit Speedway motors sell is a 3/8 all thread rod with large washers made to fit the bar and a lock nut to hold the stop and arm on the splines. I installed this on my car this week and are racing at knoxville this weekend.
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June 21, 2013 at
11:01:12 AM
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Reply to:
Posted By: Eric Smith on June 21 2013 at 10:52:59 AM
Can someone share what the solution is that comes from Speedway please? I would like to look into it to make sure it doesn't happen to me.
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Don't use titanium stops. I wouldn't put much faith in allthread/ its grade playdough.
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June 21, 2013 at
11:10:05 AM
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Reply to:
Posted By: brettco on June 21 2013 at 11:01:12 AM
Don't use titanium stops. I wouldn't put much faith in allthread/ its grade playdough.
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What does titanium have to do with it? I've seen this happen when the pinch bolt doesn't have enough threads. It torqued down on the shoulder of the bolt before it pinched the bar enough. Cost a friend a couple cars and some pain before they figured it out.
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June 21, 2013 at
11:10:30 AM
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Reply to:
Posted By: brettco on June 21 2013 at 11:01:12 AM
Don't use titanium stops. I wouldn't put much faith in allthread/ its grade playdough.
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I have had a RF stop fall off and I only use 4130 steel stops. The all-thread only is to retain the stop from being "hammered" off due to the RF bar not being under tension the majority of time and sliding back and forth in the torsion tube, effectively "hammering" it off the torsion bar.
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June 21, 2013 at
12:16:22 PM
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There is literally 100 things that "could" happen. You can't prevent them all.
On the same note however, don't forget to torque your arms and stops. If you only use a regular wrench, it's your fault
do it in the dirt
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June 21, 2013 at
12:25:31 PM
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04/14/2007
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562
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If you torque make sure you torque wrench is cslibrated properly. Zemken git sent to the hospital at carolina cause of that
Brandon McLain
United Sprint Car Series Driver
2014 Season
National Rookie of the Year!
National Points - 8th
Southern Points - 3rd
Asphalt Points - 3rd
18 Races, 3 Top 5's, 14 Top 10's
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