Learn me: Safety, Going over the wall.

This year I will be running several Lucky Dawg style endurance races. I will not be driving in any of them. I'm taking on the role of pit boss/fuel man/team mom.

The rules say anyone going over the wall during fueling must wear safety gear same as drivers. So SFI 3.5 fire suit, full face helmet blah blah blah.

I've already got an SA2020 helmet and fire suits are fire suits. What I'm wondering pertains to boots and gloves. Driving shoes are pretty thin and really aren't good for anything beyond driving. Same with gloves. Summit and jegs just seem to have the basics of driver gear.

Are there specific pit shoes and gloves that have the SFI rating and are durable enough to work in? Should I just wear my standard leather combat boots with nomex socks? What does the hive recommend?

I've never used them, but I was looking at Sparco shoes a while back and remember seeing pit crew specific shoes. Here's a link: https://www.sparcousa.com/product/pit-stop#readmore

They're not fireproof, but I wear good hiking boots and nomex socks. We only do 2-3 races a year that have fuel stops but I'm on my feet all weekend so I trade a bit of fire safety for comfort.  Be aware of your surroundings whenever you're pitting a car, I've been around one fuel fire and it happens very fast, and have been closer than I'd like to several colliding getting hit once myself.  

I like to have a second dedicated pair of racing gloves that are specifically used for hot pit duty - specifically fueling. That way you don't spill fuel on your good driving gloves.

That's good advice overall, but I won't be driving at all so everything I have will be pit only gear. None of my drivers will be fueling.

I picked up a pair of these last year: https://www.gforce.com/products/gf-sfi-crew-shoes

Surprisingly comfortable, and they've held up to four race weekends without any appreciable wear/deterioration. About the only downside is that I have to remember to swap them out for my driving shoes before I get in the car - the sole makes it tough to heel/toe in a Miata.

I like those, they look like my hiking boots. A bit more ankle support that what I've been seeing.

Might give them a try.

All I have to add is that I'm way more afraid of fire in the hot pits than I am in the car. Whatever safety is required, it's worth going above and beyond. 

I was a fuel man one time at Daytona 24 when we had a fire.  Easy to say, but don't panic.  We went ahead and sent the car back out, and dealt with it.  (it was a bad fueling coupling).  We ended up with a class win.  Two car team, we were doing stops about every 20 minutes... sort of intense.

Things happen fast.  The guys behind the wall are your friends!  Most organizations will dock you if your face shield is not closed going over the wall, for good reason.

We had the crew on a separate radio channel than the drivers were on, so we could coordinate and keep clear instructions coming from the engineer.

Good leather shoes are fine if the organization will allow them.  i liked to use gauntlet style gloves that went up over my sleeves.  I had two pair.  If one pair got compromised I could change before the next stop.

I always thought it actually was more dangerous behind pit wall where the crew after hours of work get lax with safety with all the fuel we were handling inside the pit. we were having to load overhead fueling rigs in the pits between stops while everyone else was resting.  Guys fast asleep while we were loading overhead rigs.

I know this sounds crude today... but many times the fueler had a rope tied around his waist.  And the engineer would pull on it to signal it was time to pull out.  Especially at the end of a race for "splash and dash" stops.

OBTW, train the drivers not to stop too close to the wall.   LOL

OBTW part 2... I'll watch the 24 this weekend with deep understanding for those that are not driving. The unsung heros.

Some pit stop help:

I race in Lucky dog a couple times a year. This is what I know that's relevant to your question:

You have to have fire proof gloves for fueling, so it's worth getting some cheap ones that you don't mind getting fuel spilled on. I have a pair that I offer up to anyone fueling because they're stained and crappy, and nobody uses them for driving. If there's a "pit" version of fire proof gloves, that might be worth getting!

Follow up with Lucky Dog about the shoes, I think they make an exemption for fuelers having some sort of non-slip boot... I may be remembering that wrong but I think I remember they made the exemption because driving shoes come with their own hazards, and leather boots could be thick enough that they could still provide some fire protection... Again, check with the series ahead of time. I always tell people this, and my team never does, so we always end up using our driving shoes. 

Pep talks with your team before every race, maybe even before every stop, are a good idea. We have gotten penalties for spilling fuel because the fueler was dumping the last can as fast as he could and the pan was not directly under the filler, and for a teammate who wasn't in full fire gear being over the wall when the fuel cap was cracked open... Both of these have safety risks, hence the penalty... but the part that really hurt was that these were unforced errors that caused us to wait at pit out for an extra minute or two. Not fun! Moral of the story, even if you think you know and you think everyone on your team knows... just go over the plan and the rules and don't make unforced errors like we have. 

Good luck

Re gloves; I've used nomex flight gloves. They are inexpensive via military surplus stores. 

The Lucky Dog rule book is pretty simple, explains what gear you need, and the fueling rules.  If you are over the wall you need everything a driver has to wear, including SFI/FIA gloves and shoes.  There is even a 10 minute video you can watch that explains in detail.  Lemons is the same with the exception that you can't do any work besides fueling, changing ice, and washing windows.  I don't know about Champ.

rb92673 said:

The Lucky Dog rule book is pretty simple, explains what gear you need, and the fueling rules.  If you are over the wall you need everything a driver has to wear, including SFI/FIA gloves and shoes.  There is even a 10 minute video you can watch that explains in detail.  Lemons is the same with the exception that you can't do any work besides fueling, changing ice, and washing windows.  I don't know about Champ.

That reminds me, Lucky Dog requires the driver to be out of the car. Champ allows you to change drivers while fueling if I recall correctly. Lucky dog is no-work while fueling. 

Here's the video you're referring to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9az_f7rWUk

I've seen the video, My car is actually in that video. It doesn't answer the specific questions I have.