Cleetus McFarland is going to get somebody killed...

Opti said:

In reply to Piguin :

1) So you're saying people are too ignorant to make their own decisions, so we will make them?

.....

2) I think when you say how bad it is about being misinformed and oblivious to danger, you sure do put yourself up on a high horse. I take it that means you haven't ever done anything ignorantly, or that you are so well informed you can forsee all potential hazards.

Apologies if I offended you. That was certainly not my intent.

1) Nope. Nop. Not. Nowhere did I say, nor imply anything like that.

2) I have done my fair share of stupid, ignorant things, as I would guess practically everyone has. I was lucky enough to survive. Not all my friends were so lucky.

Again: My personal issue which, to be clear, I approach with mostly sadness and not a censoring torch and a pitchfork, isn't about personal responsibility but about PROMOTING lack of safety to get rich. In my eyes, when you are promoting and broadcasting (damn, these words feel so out of touch in the youtube age) a motorsports event with an inherent amount of danger, most people expect that sufficient measures have been taken to mitigate the risks. Which was not the case.

In reply to STM317 :

Also agreed. And kudos to him for not only realizing but also publicly recognizing the mistakes. Not as many people are going to see it, but that is the nature of the medium and in no way his fault.

It just feels at times like everybody is trying to reinvent the wheel, going through the same pains and potentially injuries all over again.

-'Who needs all those pesky safety measures?'

- Ouch!

- 'Well, in hindsight, maybe we should have done this'

But at the end, this is my 'get of my lawn' view, since I also thought I knew better when I was younger.

In reply to Piguin :

"Ignorant" is a loaded word.  It means that you don't have certain information.

A lot of people assume it means "WILLFULLY ignorant", which is another kettle of fish.

Everybody is ignorant to some degree, because there is so much to know that we don't even know what we don't know until we find out.

I'm having a hard time thinking that nobody who was involved in the prepping of those cars didn't know how to properly mount a window net.  So I do think that "willfully ignorant" does come into play with some of that stuff.

When you're given a car, you assume a base level of safety for it, along with inspections of said gear.  There's a lot of peer pressure involved and I find it unlikely anyone would show up, look at the car prep and say "Nope, not getting in that POS!"

docwyte said:

When you're given a car, you assume a base level of safety for it, along with inspections of said gear.  There's a lot of peer pressure involved and I find it unlikely anyone would show up, look at the car prep and say "Nope, not getting in that POS!"

I showed up to race a big money enduro in a friends car I had never really looked at , couple hundred laps on 3/8 mile asphalt. Got there, seat bolted direct to floor board, roll bar was a truck bar turned around backwards, some extra bars that were basically butt welded black pipe and the column shifter was out of wack so when in gear it would point directly at your nuts...4 point harness no sub belt.

My bro told me " do not drive that thing" but of course there was a few grand on the line and it was being televised on local TV. I jumped in and raced it even though the voice in my head said not to. luckily no injury but motor lost compression and we retired early. 

some times racers make stupid decisions even when they know better. 

docwyte said:

...There's a lot of peer pressure involved and I find it unlikely anyone would show up, look at the car prep and say "Nope, not getting in that POS!"

Right, plus, they may also be considering on a personal basis: potential publicity, future opportunities, reputation, possible future negative repercussions if they say "no." For the latter, they may be concerned that a team could look back at their "no" as an indication that he's a "complainer."

I absolutely agree that the safety setups were wanting, but human nature being what it is, saying "no" can be really hard for multiple reasons, and not always the right one.

docwyte said:

I'm having a hard time thinking that nobody who was involved in the prepping of those cars didn't know how to properly mount a window net.  So I do think that "willfully ignorant" does come into play with some of that stuff.

When you're given a car, you assume a base level of safety for it, along with inspections of said gear.  There's a lot of peer pressure involved and I find it unlikely anyone would show up, look at the car prep and say "Nope, not getting in that POS!"

You seem to forget that they come from drag racing.  How many drag cars have you seen with a window net?

I saw another video from this race where people were ratchet strapping the seats to the cage to keep the seats or brackets from bending during just normal driving, and on the one car the window net was only screwed into the rubber molding on the door so it wasn't even really attached by anything.

In reply to racerfink :

So what?  There are safety regulations in drag racing, they know how to adhere to those.  That means they know there's a rule book and that they've read it and built things to match.  It's reasonable for them to think that there are the same regulations for any other type of racing.  A simple internet search would've shown them how to properly mount the window net.

In reply to docwyte :

And just like in drag racing, the cars have to pass tech inspection guidelines set by the sanctioning body to compete.

Who gave the 'all good / good enough' on the cars? 

Tk8398 said:

I saw another video from this race where people were ratchet strapping the seats to the cage to keep the seats or brackets from bending during just normal driving, and on the one car the window net was only screwed into the rubber molding on the door so it wasn't even really attached by anything.

Why don't you just watch something else?

In reply to DjGreggieP :

Was there a tech inspection?  This was a private event, held at a track that was rented by a private group. 

Stand up guy that hopefully learns from his mistakes (and not a terrible one):

I haven't watched that video yet, maybe it answers some questions. But watching the pre storm video, my first thought was "there's no berkeleying way that roof on stilts survives". Which turned out to be true, and makes me wonder if he was misinformed, lied to, or just "hurricane rated" doesn't actually mean anything. Or maybe some combination of all of those things.

In reply to preach (dudeist priest) :

That was a pretty crazy video.

During our flood last fall hundreds of cows had to be shot because after standing in water for two weeks their legs broke when they tried to move them. Not sure why. 

bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) said:

During our flood last fall hundreds of cows had to be shot because after standing in water for two weeks their legs broke when they tried to move them. Not sure why. 

My guess would be they were not used to the weight being on them due to whatever buoyancy a cow has in water.

In reply to preach (dudeist priest) :

I'm not a boat guy but those jet boats they built are fuggin' siiiiiick. They weren't cheap though. They were sent as a kit of just prevent aluminum sheets that they had to have their fab guy weld up, and they had to go buy the top-of-the-line Sea-Doos and gut them for the powerplants and drives.

Anyone catch yesterday's video?  The Danger Ranger race is coming up this weekend, and someone realized there is no rule against buying a new generation Ranger.  So, it's going to be a bunch of beater 90s-2000s Rangers against a 270 HP turbocharged new Ranger.  I wish I had time to watch this weekend, I might actually be willing to spend the money on the pay-per-view.

In reply to eastsideTim :

10 mins from my house.  I'll be there!  The guys also said the new Ranger has a big target on it.  lol.

Lof8 - Andy said:

In reply to eastsideTim :

10 mins from my house.  I'll be there!  The guys also said the new Ranger has a big target on it.  lol.

Cool.  I figure it is either going to win or DNF.  Everyone is going to be gunning for it.

preach (dudeist priest) said:

bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) said:

During our flood last fall hundreds of cows had to be shot because after standing in water for two weeks their legs broke when they tried to move them. Not sure why. 

My guess would be they were not used to the weight being on them due to whatever buoyancy a cow has in water.

It has to do with the water making their bones brittle from being in water for so long.

Unfortunately, more dumb E36 M3 from Cleetus to add to the thread. Last night at his Danger Ranger 9000 race, his sidekick Jackstand Jimmy raced with a 5' log held onto his tailgate with 2 lil ratchet straps.  Looked like it probably weighed 200 lbs or more. Thankfully it didn't fall off and cause unknown carnage, but how completely stupid?  That's more than just being ignorant to todays safety standards.   I was bummed to see it. 
 

The simple fact is that he (correctly) calculated that doing such things ups his revenue.

End of story.

I was really disappointed to see that made it to the race. I watched the video where they were joking about doing that and both James and Garrett (Cleetus) talked about how that could hurt someone and yet, they did it anyway.