Are you prepared to do a bailout?

J.G.
By J.G. Pasterjak
Jan 29, 2025 | Safety, Column | Posted in Columns | From the Feb. 2025 issue | Never miss an article

Photography by Chris Tropea

It’s winter, which means it’s offseason for many of you. Of course, here in Florida, it just means we wear the fleece-lined shorts to the track. But I realize that the weather precludes many of you from doing actual track activities, and that’s no fun.

But there’s still stuff to do, like work on the car, clean the car, procrastinate on working on and cleaning the car–and that stuff takes a lot of time. I’d also like to add something to that list of things to put off until the last possible moment.

And that thing is bailouts–the thing we all dread but rarely practice and yet will be of critical importance to get correct should we actually need to utilize the skill.

Pretty much every major high-profile racing series has a minimum standard stating how quickly drivers must be able to exit a race car. These standards are enforced via actual tests where drivers must demonstrate the ability to extract themselves from the car in under a predetermined time while fully geared, fully belted and essentially in competition-ready condition.

These standards–particularly in high-profile pro series like IMSA–also include exiting the car in non-standard ways. Drivers of GT3 or GT4 cars, for example, must demonstrate proficiency in bailing out through both the driver- and passenger-side doors.

But this practice rarely trickles down into the club ranks–and almost never trickles into the non-wheel-to-wheel arenas of track days and time trials. And that’s why we staged an impromptu bailout contest at the recent SCCA Time Trials Nationals at NCM Motorsports Park.

Our methodology wasn’t particularly scientific. Drivers began fully loaded with the car in gear and running, and when the clock started, had to stop the car, keep it from rolling away, and then GTFO PDQ. When both feet were on the ground and their body was away from the car, the clock stopped. Despite our casual approach to the experi­ment, it’s fair to say we took away a few anecdotal lessons from the results.

Lesson 1. The best way to ensure a good bailout is to have a plan. Well, technically we found that the best way to ensure a good bailout was to be young, athletic and flexible, but that’s a tougher ask for many of us. Having a plan seemed to be the number-one factor in the smoothness and speed of the exits.

This was maybe best exemplified by Dave Melton, who showed up in his bone-stock Miata. With the top down, Dave only needed to unbuckle his stock seat belt, yank the hand brake, open the door and stand up. His 3.76-second time was indicative of the simplicity of the process.

But then Dave volunteered to try again, this with the top up. And he was faster. When asked why, his response was simple: “I thought about it. I took what had worked from the run with the top down, then made sure I wasn’t surprised by the edge of the top snagging the helmet or something. I made a plan, and it seemed slower but it was faster.”

Lesson 2. Practice makes perfect. Some drivers who showed up had practiced, but a few purposely didn’t before present­ing. “I’m kind of embarrassed I’ve never done this before,” Mark Pilson admitted, “so I kind of want to find out just what I’m in for and use that as a frame of reference.”

Mark’s Mustang was fully equipped with a cage, race seat and harnesses, and he was fully decked out in personal gear as well. His first run was a bit clumsy as his additional sternum strap got snagged around his arm, eating valuable seconds. But it gave him a place to work from, and now he’s more aware of the potential hazards of a quick exit.

Lesson 3. Gear buys you time in a fire, but it can also cost you time exiting. In general, drivers in street clothes driving street cars with stock seats and no door bars had the quickest exit times. Heavily geared drivers in cars with more equip­ment simply had more steps to deal with.

And every one of those steps is a place where complica­tions could arise. Richard Sawicki found a sticky window net in his Miata at the worst possible time, slowing his exit by nearly 5 full seconds. The time to find out your gear sticks is in your garage, not after the fire starts on track.

If you take anything away from this casual experiment, I hope it’s the inspiration to head out to the car a couple times this winter–even if it’s a stock Miata with OEM belts–and practice hopping out in a hurry. Hopefully the only thing you ever use the skill for is to collect your trophy before anyone else does, but as we saw in our tests, even the simplest opera­tion can get complex when you’re panicking.

Oh yeah, Lesson 4 is don’t panic. But you probably guessed that one already. Let me know how your winter bail­out practice goes.

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Comments
Woody (Forum Supportum)
Woody (Forum Supportum) GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
1/29/25 2:27 p.m.

Sorry, thought you said "burnout"...

Tom1200
Tom1200 PowerDork
1/29/25 2:34 p.m.

I practice in my dark garage. I can do it in under 3 seconds now.

I've had a car catch fire with me in it; it was ever so brief but still not a great feeling.

Appleseed
Appleseed MegaDork
1/29/25 2:42 p.m.

I'm a pilot. If the airplane is in one piece, I'm not cheating on it, I'm riding the bastard down.

APEowner
APEowner GRM+ Memberand UltraDork
1/29/25 3:45 p.m.

I practice a couple of times a year but I also try and use the same plan every time I get out of the car so that I can rely on muscle memory.

Mr_Asa
Mr_Asa MegaDork
1/29/25 4:02 p.m.

Every time a certain vendor calls me, or when the work Q.A. mailing list gets sent something.

 

Wait.  What are we talking about?

David S. Wallens
David S. Wallens Editorial Director
1/30/25 9:05 a.m.

Spoiler alert: This topic gets revisited in the next issue. TL;DR: What to do when you crash?

SV reX
SV reX MegaDork
1/30/25 9:22 a.m.
Appleseed said:

I'm a pilot. If the airplane is in one piece, I'm not cheating on it, I'm riding the bastard down.

My old boss was a pilot, and I flew with him many times. He told me if he ever had to ditch he'd be aiming for a small space between 2 trees to shear the wings off (and the fuel tanks).

I never really felt comfortable with that wooded area at the end of the runway... 😳

 

lotusseven7 (Forum Supporter)
lotusseven7 (Forum Supporter) Dork
1/30/25 9:28 a.m.

I had a customer's S2000 we prepared for SCCA T-3 competition. I maintained the car and he was always spending $$$ on the latest and greatest stuff. One day he drops off a RaceTech "halo" seat for me to install. After one look at it, I told him that I would not install the seat and that if he wanted to upgrade the seat, consider something else without the helmet halo. He argued a bit and I told him that I would put it in the car if he would stop back at the shop with his drivers suit , helmet and Hans. I needed to prove a point, so I tore out his old seat and simply set the new one in its place. When he arrived and suited up, he was able to climb in the car over the top door bar, but barely. He had a cocky reply and said, "see, no problem". "Yep" I replied and proceeded to shut the door and told him that he just crashed and needed to get out the window opening since the door wouldn't open. He looked at me perplexed and said that it wasn't going to happen. I then said that the car is on fire and you have seconds to get out the passengers side. Well, between the belts, comm cables, right side net, halo seat, shifter and everything thing else, after a few seconds he removed his helmet. I said, "you just burned in the car, I'll call your wife". He didn't think about all of the consequences and even though the seat was safer, to what end? 
 

I explained to him that it wasn't my first rodeo. I had a car fire after a blown motor at NHIS back in the early 90's and my brother almost burned to death in his car at Pocono. You race long enough and you'll have incidents, not necessarily accidents. I'm here typing this only because of training beyond driving. In my incident at New Hampshire, I pulled off in the grass after the blown motor. Besides the oil smoke, when I pulled onto the grass, the hot rotary exhaust didn't help matters and there was a fire under the car. I ended up out of the car quickly but when back in the pits, my father asked why I didn't open the door of the car to get out. I said I did, but after looking at video that my mother was taking, I actually climbed out the window! Out was out regardless of the path to get there, but it happened quickly because I practiced on how to do it.

 

With all of the cables attached to a driver nowadays, cool suit plumbing hoses, HANS device, belts with sternum straps, window nets, right side nets, sometimes a second window net(yes 2 of them), all of the gauge wiring in the car, fire suppression system plumbing, Accusump plumbing, petty bar placement and general rollcage layout, you better know how to quickly and efficiently remove yourself from the drivers seat. Your life might just depend on it! Please read this and take it to heart.

Motojunky
Motojunky Reader
1/30/25 9:49 a.m.

Some good related discussion in this video: 

 

Toyman!
Toyman! GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
1/30/25 10:58 a.m.

I'm not. My size means it takes me too long to up and over the door bars. I haven't raced since. 

My goal for the year is to drop about 50 pounds. We'll see how that helps. Until I'm convinced I can bail out of a fiery crash before burning to death, I'll stick to less dangerous motorsports. 

 

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