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

Do I think WRG and Lucas oil should have there own safety teams with there respective series, Yes. Will they do it ? Not a chance,  it cuts into there profits and that's what it's all about.  I don't feel they need to be emt's, but they need to be a fast reacting team with the proper equipment to deal with these types of situations.  As I said before, with these cockpits being so confined it makes it tuff to ask anyone to jump in a burning fire. My hats off to the volunteers that did so, did you see how many had flames around and on there legs ?  I have said it many times, the places these series go to many times has inadequate safety services at the ready. There was nothing good about what happened other than it could have been much worse at many other facilities.  A guy standing in a corner with a fire bottle is a f-in joke. Wake up people.

I agree that a professional traveling series should have a safety crew, or at least assure that the tracks they visit have a certain standard in place for that.   Here's a bigger issue though, it doesn't have to be a touring sprint car.   A guy running a hobby stock at a 1/4 mile track anywhere in this country could have a serious fire.   Late models and modified are also hard to escape with the small window openings.   At some point the racers need to take charge too.   How many racers (any class) will travel to a track out of their normal area and race there without even checking on fire equipment or crew that the track does or doesn't have?   I know this because my brothers have done that very thing.   

I would bet money that no track in North Texas could have handled that situation the way Knoxville did, and it would have been much worse.   We've had a track in our area experience a fire fatality within the last couple of years.   As sad as it is, all that ever changes is some racers take fire safety a little more seriously.   It's only for awhile though and everything goes back to the way it was.   

What caused the bottle to leave the car? Were they only using one clamp? Were the clamps broken? This is a very important question that needs publically answered so others can learn from it and make adjustments to their mounting system.

In my day the hoods were 1 large pc of fiberglass with a 4 to 6" pc of clear lexan riveted to the hood. The hoods where long enough that they went 1/3 of the way back the cockpit at best. 

There's no body rules that take getting out of the cockpits fast in any of the big divisions of dirt racing. The sprints now have the driver pretty much in closed on both sides. SLM  are a joke as the driver has to just about wiggle his way out thru the opening, and it's the same with the dirt mods.  I hope I never witness the latter 2 in the same senario as Macedo was in. Upside down a super or a mod has no way to get out quickly. 

I agree that a professional traveling series should have a safety crew, or at least assure that the tracks they visit have a certain standard in place for that.   Here's a bigger issue though, it doesn't have to be a touring sprint car.   A guy running a hobby stock at a 1/4 mile track anywhere in this country could have a serious fire.   Late models and modified are also hard to escape with the small window openings.   At some point the racers need to take charge too.   How many racers (any class) will travel to a track out of their normal area and race there without even checking on fire equipment or crew that the track does or doesn't have?   I know this because my brothers have done that very thing.   

I would bet money that no track in North Texas could have handled that situation the way Knoxville did, and it would have been much worse.   We've had a track in our area experience a fire fatality within the last couple of years.   As sad as it is, all that ever changes is some racers take fire safety a little more seriously.   It's only for awhile though and everything goes back to the way it was.   

I cannot comment on a lot of areas, but the upper midwest has really solid safety crews at many of the tracks.  A lot of credit goes to Med Star and a group out of Missouri who worked with the ASCS.  Med Star handles many of the higher profile shows around the Dakotas and Minnesota.  In addition, they put on safety training programs for area safety teams so that tracks that they do not service can send their people to Med Star where they teach all of the skills of dealing with race cars along with different situations on rollovers.  They also provide guidance to the teams on correct chemical usage for various fires.

Out of Missouri, there was also a group of ASCS safety people who used to provide a similar 1 day training program where they worked with track safety teams on education around working with sprint cars, methanol and other items.

While there may be an exception, many tracks around the upper midwest are very well staffed and educated on race car safety with most having 4 wheelers equipped with appropriate equipment thanks to these experts.

There are standard specs for cars. What about some universal requirements for safety services based on track size, car class, etc. 

Some observations / opinions:

If this had been a wingless car, that might have been a fatal crash.

If this happened at a track that doesn't have a Knoxville or Husets caliber safety team, this could have been really bad.

The axle tether seemed to do its job. 

Surely they can find a way attach the onboard fire suppression system better.

Isn't the fuel cell supposed to keep this from happening? Maybe the nerf bars around the tank need to be stouter.

Unrelated to the crash, I predicted the winner both nights by the results of the dash.
 

Seriously? If it had been a wingless car it would have been going

slower in the corner and not crashed as bad. Plus, it's easier to get a driver 

out of a non-wing car in the event of a fire. He's just lucky it landed on all fours. 
if it had landed upside down it could have been much worse. 
the cars that are enclosed on both sides are just asking for trouble. 

I disagree, based on physics. The winged cars are faster in the corners becasue the wing gives them more traction. On the straights, the wing give unneeded drag, so a wingless car is probably faster there. All things considered, I'd say a winged car and a non-winged car are probably going about the same speed when halfway through the 3rd corner. Once the car starts crashing, the winged car slows down faster because of the cushion of the wing absorbing a lot of energy and acting as a paracute to slow the car.

I've heard from multiple sources that the track in Texas which had a fire fatality didn't reopen last year because they couldn't get insurance.   Not sure if they're open this year or not.   

Seriously? If it had been a wingless car it would have been going

slower in the corner and not crashed as bad. Plus, it's easier to get a driver 

out of a non-wing car in the event of a fire. He's just lucky it landed on all fours. 
if it had landed upside down it could have been much worse. 
the cars that are enclosed on both sides are just asking for trouble. 

What caused the bottle to leave the car? Were they only using one clamp? Were the clamps broken? This is a very important question that needs publically answered so others can learn from it and make adjustments to their mounting system.

I disagree, based on physics. The winged cars are faster in the corners becasue the wing gives them more traction. On the straights, the wing give unneeded drag, so a wingless car is probably faster there. All things considered, I'd say a winged car and a non-winged car are probably going about the same speed when halfway through the 3rd corner. Once the car starts crashing, the winged car slows down faster because of the cushion of the wing absorbing a lot of energy and acting as a paracute to slow the car.

Which one?

You are ignoring the physics of traction. The winged car on the straight has traction thus speed due to the physics of downforce. The unwinged car has less traction and less speed.