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

No , but he does own a keyboard.

when wolfie got burn't years ago ...i thought there was a device to shut the fuel off .....are these wrecks tearing the bladder and why are we seeing fuel spraying ... i have read that methanol becomes pressured ...i don't know...just asking

Your third sentence is the problem there Egras!   The problem is most drivers won't even check on what the fire crew has or if they're qualified to be doing it.   Even if someone told them it was inadequate most of them would just say they wanna race anyway.  Both of my brothers raced in lower classes and neither of them ever checked on fire safety when they went to a new track.   

I gotta be honest. I'm not a confrontational person. But at the same time, it bothers me when I see bad behavior. Sometimes it's neccesary to say something, so here goes. Whether you realize it or not, in nearly  every thread you participate in, eventually you come off as someone just picking a fight for the hell of it. It's like if you disagree with someone, or maybe you don't feel you're getting enough attention, you'll start posting things like this insult quoted above, aimed at a lot of people. In this case, your need to fight has masked the fact that no one has even provoked you. You just figured you'd insult a lot of people and see what happens. It seems maybe you're the one who needs to get a life, or a hobby other than would-be internet intellectual and bully.

True to form, your next step will be to insult me, call me names and suggest that this thread get shut down and those people that have dared to doubt you be thrown off the forum. How 'bout you just act your age and talk about all the good things about the sport of sprint car racing? There's literally hundreds of places you can go on the internet to have petty, little, sanbox fights with strangers to build up your self esteem. There is only one place left- Hoseheads- where you can talk about sprint cars with other fans. 

I figure that in my lifetime, I've probably been to somewhere between 600 and 800 sprint car races. In that time, I've only seen one driver get badly burned and one driver (and a track worker) get killed. I don't really  want to see either event ever again. It's a good thing when safety is improved in racing. Since I started going to the races, they've added fuel cells, arm restraints, wings, full firesuits, full-face helmets, wrap-around seats, HANS devises, axle tethers, etc. Each addition made the sport just a little bit less dangerous. I'm sure that every step of the way, there were people who resisted change, but there are people who are now alive and healthy because of the changes.

Something to keep in mind, is that some of the changes may be due to insurance companies and liability. 

How about this compromise? Raise the minimum weight requirement on sprint cars by whatever the average fire suppression system weighs. Give the teams the option of putting in the system, or bolting in the same weight in the spot the systems are mounted. The driver, owner, sponsors, or even fans can decide if they'd like to donate some funds to their favorite driver's safety fund. 

Racing can be dangerous but doesn't come close to hanging around this board anymore.  I'm an original and still am in the habit of dropping in here daily.  I don't always claim to make a lot of sense in some of my posts but I can assure everyone it's more about old age or misunderstanding something than an effort to argue about a sport.  I can't get to races much anymore and use this forum or stop by when neighbors are working on their car to chat about the pros and cons of racing in 2024.  

I can't wrap my head around the idea of coming on here and arguing to defend opinions and observations.  I don't make dramatic exits so if I don't show up one of these days I went belly up or I broke the daily HH habit.  Everything has an expiration date including my willingness to argue in sports forums.

Stan Meissner

Everything I've seen asks for donations to be made to The NARC Benevolent Fund. They take care of the injured racers that run in their series races. 

https://narc410.com/about-club/benevolent-fund/

The older I get the faster I was.
All of my hard lessons have been learned at the speed of 
pain...

In my opinion raising the weight is not a good idea for safety reasons. Reason being these sprint car chassis are not designed to pack any more weight than they are right now with the already implemented tubing thickness increase and bolt on weight itself can be dangerous. You add more weight and in bad crashes the chassis fails in a critical area and a driver gets seriously injured or killed. They have raised the wieght up to where it is now and have it to where it strikes the right balance of cost reduction and safety as much as that is possible in an expensive and dangerous Motorsport. On board fire suppression systems are already required by most sanctioning bodies now and the cost is just part of a racers safety equipment and one they bear with the help of their sponsors or on their own if self funded if they want to race. Even my local track rules require on board fire suppression systems and they are teched each race night no exceptions, you don't have a working fire suppression system you don't race. What needs to happen and I'm sure it will as the technology always advances, is better working more foolproof fire suppression systems. A good friend I raced with ran one way back in the early 90's in his winged sprint car but it was manually activated with a lever which only did him any good if he remained conscious and kept my wits about him, it was 70's NHRA funny car technology. Things have already come a long way from that.  I saw Justin Sanders system go off just before he pulled into victory lane after winning a trophy dash because something got way to hot in his cockpit instead of his car bursting into flames. I also saw one activate and extinguish an oil fire succesfully. I have also seen cases where they didn't appear to function but I have no proof they didn't function because the fire was so big so quick due to a ruptured bladder with a full load of fuel. Nothing is foolproof and that small fire bottle is only going to afford you 2 to 3 seconds of extra time to get out of the cockpit in case of a fire and that bottle needs to stay attached to the chassis when the car is flipping wildly or impacts the wall.  At any rate there are always improvements that need to be made and I am sure those improvements are being worked on. It's an ever evolving mission for the safety industry to come up with better ways to improve driver safety.

The older I get the faster I was.
All of my hard lessons have been learned at the speed of 
pain...

I don't know that I can agree with you about sprint car chassis not being able to carry more weight. Heavier seats, bigger drivers, and added roll bars have been added without issue. Most 360's run a heavier minimum weight. Aren't they using the same chassis?

I can see that a fair amount of people question the value of having an onboard fire suppression system. In the early 70's my brother in law pitted for a guy who literally had a red multi-purpose fire extinguisher mounted inside the cockpit of his sprint car. I'm not sure how he thought he was going to activate it in a fire. It didn't matter anyway. A couple races into the season, he rolled the car. The fire extinguisher came loose in the crash and bonked him on the head, knocking him unconscious.

I would be in favor of raising the minimum weight some to allow added safe equipment without it becoming a disadvantage . Eventually someone will develop a better fire suppression system. But I could see better (thicker?) fuel cells, firewalls between driver/engine, driver/fuel cell, more robust rear nerf bars, more extensive side nerf bars, taller/wider(?) roll cages, etc...

Rico has an advantage to put weight exactly where they want. Although he is smaller he has a lot of muscle mass. The difference from Rico to Brad Sweet is less than the difference from Brad to Danny Dietrich. All three have found a way to be competitive amongst eachother. 

360s are heavier because the steel block is heavier, 70-100 pounds. 360 blocks are lightened however they are getting to the point that a big crash will ruin a block now because there is no integrity in the block anymore. 

In the last 15 years 410 weight limit went from 1375 to 1400 to 1425. 

I'd rather have an adequate team with  fire extenquishesr on  UTVs, than an in car Fire Suppression System. 

How often does fuel get sprayed around the car and can it supress a fire? I still think the FSS inside is a good idea, and may give a driver a few extra valuable seconds. Combine that with a well equipped team. 

I'd like to see some type of standard or baseline with safety and obviously the WOO and HL have started implenting the traveling support group. Can we ever trust some of these tracks we go to to have the correct equipment and personnel? 

Keep It Real