Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Nasty wreck, saw a lot of interesting Tweets in regards to the chassis, including a request from the official CJB Motorsports account to not post pictures. Sounds like the chassis could have been compromised? Very glad to see David walk away, was a nasty incident and the post context seems to confirm it easily could have been way wrose. 

Don't understand why the request not to post pics if gravel wasnt hurt. Only saw the video highlights and it only catches the end of it. Looked like the other car hit top cage thats always the most dangerous type of crash. Probably all chassis are going to cave in in that situation. Glad hes ok.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVECnlVoGH8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVECnlVoGH8  fixed it for ya...

Ascot was the greatest of all time..

West Capital wasn't half bad either..

Life is good...

   I'm thankful no one was injured.


      It's hard to tell from the video, but it doesn't look like there was much of an impact against the rollcage unless there was contact by the front end of the other car at about the 5 second mark. It seems to me that it would be unusual for a cage to break without either contacting a concrete wall or getting hit straight on by another car at speed. Neither appears to happen in that video.

My biggest question after watching the video - What were they trying to hide by puting a blanket over the top of the car?

Things that make you go Hmmmmmm!

Yea that' strange. If anything let's show what happened so people can learn from it. Looks like the right side of the halo on the cage is caved in from the way the blanket dips right there but you can see left side of the halo through the blanket. May just be an illusion

A statement from Barry Jackson, Crew Chief for CJB Motorsports regarding last night’s crash at Volusia Speedway during the World of Outlaws A Main. 

“In response to questions as to why we covered the roll cage. We quite simply didn’t want this to be a social media spectacle for those to comment without knowing all the facts. I have since had other competitors look at the chassis so that we together can avoid how close this came to being really bad. In my opinion, the time has come for new rules and specs so that these cars can take the hard impacts they receive at the speeds we have today. We (builders) use the best tubing available, but sizes (thickness) may have to be re-evaluated moving forward. I have many friends who sit in these cars and do not want to see anyone compromised. I have invited the World of Outlaws officials to look at the chassis this evening, and also I invite any chassis builders to do the same. We have nothing to hide, we need to learn. Hopefully together we can make some changes and make these guys even more safe!”

Looks like the right side bar is extemrely bent or not even there by the way the blanklet hangs.

If you slow the one posters video down to .25 speed and turn up the resolution as high you can actually see from 0:05 onward where Shaffer hits Gravel.  You can catch a brief glimpse of the bent bar of the right side top part of the halo and its deformation for a brief moment in the 0:06 mark.  Hard to see being the car is rolling so fast, but it's there. 

https://youtu.be/fVECnlVoGH8   

With that said I question what are they trying to hide?????  I forget who it was now but it wasn't that long ago somebody hit the opening at a track and it ripped the car in half at the motor plate and nothing was hidden.

Criticism is part of the territory when you work in public entertainment.     

kossuth, you may be thinking of Brad Sweet at 34 Raceway a few years ago - he slid up the turn 3 entrance and basically sheared the front of the car off. Was lucky to escape with just a minor ankle injury.

Unfortunately, I think CJB found out about the Streisand Effect here. I can see covering the car, but it's just going to get people wondering. Add in the odd request to not post photos, and I think that's what fueled the discussion. 

Did think it's kind of odd that in the statement, it talks about not being a social media spectacle for people commneting without knowing facts, when that's kind of what they created by not being upfront to begin with. 

A lot of these teams have so-called PR folks, who can pound out recaps, but I doubt any of them have any experience or clue how to deal with what could potentially be very negative for the team/driver they are working with. Seems that might be the case here. 

Is that the same hole Madsen hit ?

Thanks for this post!! Takes all the gossip away before some people get carried away! Smart move Glad Gravel is ok!!

I think all cars use same tubes, but what brand of chassis was it.  I have seen broken chassis at Knoxville, but not much in cage around your head.  We got a car once with .120 cage instead of .095  and some said it was not needed.

I am pretty sure the chassis was built "inhouse" by Barry Jackson who owned JEI before selling his company to TI22 which rebranded the chassis company as GF1 chassis. Since GF1 went out of business at the end of 2017, I believe the team was building their own cars again for the 2018 season?

I was going to post this as well. I believe this is correct. When GF1 went out Barry "bought back" the jigs, etc. to build their chassis again. So my assumption is he built this and all their chassis. 

I do know that Russ Mitten who used to work for both JEI and GF1 started his own company called RPM chassis out of Newville, Pa and built the chassis for both Kasey Kahne Racing & Kyle Larson Racing amoung others for 2018.

Yep a lot of teams (I guess a lot is relatively speaking, but a decent number) are moving to Russ's RPM Chassis. 

The rule is a minimum thickness rule...It is the builder/buyer's choice to put 20# above safety.

Whew... when I first saw Barry's statement I thought Gravel was badly injured

So glad he's OK