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It Looks Great, but is it Safe? |
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The one good thing about winter is that there is little if any drag racing going on. This is the time of the year when a lot of racers are freshening up their engines, checking their gear, and starting to make plans for the up-coming 2004 season. It's not like the money isn't being spent, however. That seems to be an on going process all year long. On top of the usual expenses for new rings, bearings, gaskets and maybe that new trick carb, there is the expense incurred to insure that your safety equipment is in compliance. You know, the charges for the new seat belts. You and I both know that the old ones were probably perfectly fine, but your 2-year expiration period was up, and it was either get the old ones re-stitched or get some new ones. And for some racers, there are some new SFI Chassis Specs that may (or will) require an expensive trip to the chassis shop. There is no way around it. If the car isn't brought up to the latest SFI Specs, it (probably) won't be getting through tech. Of course, it's logical to rationalize that it's “your butt on the line” in case something goes terribly wrong, and you want all the safety items possible working in your favor. So, more checks are written and there are more credit card deductions, all to insure your safety. As it turns out, you have everything necessary to insure that you and your car are as safe as humanly possible. If you want to “just get by”, you can probably save a couple of bucks here and there by purchasing cheaper safety gear. A good closed face helmet may be best, but you might be able to save some cash on a lesser expensive, open face hat. Personally, I like to tell racers not to spend any more money than they think their head is worth. Having seen racers walk away from some horrible wrecks, I would not be trying to save any money on safety equipment. So, you have gone all-out, and spared no expense, on getting your race car ship-shape in the safety department, and you are ready to rumble. The question is, have you done everything you can to insure that you are as safe as possible when you are going down the track? The answer may be “no”. There are drag strips and then there are “drag strips”. You are the one that decides where to run. You load up the race car, some tools, some spare parts, and now it's off to the race track. You get your pit space, go through tech with no problems, and are ready to go down the track. If there is, God forbid, going to be a “problem”, it will probably happen while you are going down the track. Hopefully, all of your hard work and the expense required to make your car safe will pay off, and other than some bent pipe and tin, you're going to climb out of the car and be OK. And if it's a real bad crash, the track safety crew will be there to get you out, or put out the fire, or both. How sure are you about that? How competent are the track safety crews at your track? What kind of training have they had? In fact, just exactly what kind of safety crew is even required at this track? We have all seen it on TV - at the national events, a Funny Car engine lets go in a big ball of fire, and even before the car stops rolling or before the driver pops out of the hatch, the safety crew is there, hosing the car down, and helping to get the driver out. Now, let's compare that to a typical sportsman event. Even though there probably won't be any nitro Funny Cars at the event, there may very well be 6-second, 220+ MPH race cars running at the track that weekend. Do you know if the track safety crew is ready for that? Here's a little horror story for you. This occurred at an NHRA national event facility, one of the biggest in the country. And, it was during an officially sanctioned NHRA event, part of a national series. A turbocharged Pro car caught fire about half way done the track. This was caused by automatic transmission fluid overflowing the catch can and spilling onto the headers. Fortunately, the driver was able to get the car stopped, even though fire came through some small holes in the firewall. As it turned out, a TV crew was on site filming the event from the starting line area. When they saw the fire, they stopped filming, grabbed their cameras and drove their rent-a-car down the return road toward the burning car, which by this time was almost completely engulfed. The TV crew set their cameras back up and were actually interviewing the driver on television, before the track “fire truck” arrived . Did I say fire truck? How about a pick-up truck with two hand-held fire extinguishers, and a couple of the track crew, dressed in T-shirts? If this had been more serious, does anybody think that these guys could have gotten close enough to pull an unconscious driver out of a burning car? I don't. Of course, there are many tracks around the country that take driver's safety as seriously as the racers do. New England Dragway, in Epping , NH , comes to mind. They have real fire equipment, on both ends of the track, staffed with real firemen wearing airport crash gear. If you have to have a fire, have it at Epping. And I'm sure there are plenty of other tracks that take track safety very seriously, too. Racers are required to spend big money to purchase all of the mandated safety gear for their race car. In most cases, racers either assume, or don't think about, the other end of the “safety equation,” the track and the track personnel. Well, think about it, and the next time you go to the track, take some time to check out the safety crew. Don't be afraid to question their experience and competence either. After all, there may come a time when your life might just depend on these guys or gals. Maybe if the track operators see that racers have reasonable concerns about the safety crew, they may be less inclined to try to save a buck in that area. |