Racing Safety Equipment Failures

Something that has been on my mind more and more frequently as I get farther into motorsports is what safety deficiencies our racecar and equipment might have. Of course our car/gear passes and exceeds tech, but I keep wondering: what can be improved? Is the roll cage strong enough? Door bars sufficient? What extra members should be added? Should I switch to a containment seat? Is egress already hard enough? Will my fire system really be enough? Etc. etc. etc. literally with every safety part on the car, on our drivers, in the pits, etc. 

I don't know if I'm the only one, but every time I heard about someone dying or being seriously injured in club racing, the first thing that comes to mind is "what went wrong?". That sounds bad, because it's obviously very sad when anyone loses their life in this sport.  It does hurt and it does weigh on me. It also causes me to wonder how we can all look at our own race efforts and make sure these things don't happen again. When I see a car get totaled at one of our races or read about one on a forum, I study the car as best I can to see what did it's job and what failed, what could have helped, etc..

So I'm hoping that people can share some race car safety failures... I'm not talking about blood and gore... can't handle that. I'm hoping people will share a story about how X safety improvement would have saved them a certain injury, how they hit a wall at 90mph and walked away because of X safety gear, how their roll cage/seat/HANS/etc. handled a large accident. Did a window net ever save you? Did a fuel cell ever save you? Did a fuel cell or anything else ever try to kill you? With all of the debate between Nascar and X/FIA door bars, has anyone had a roll cage door bar fail? These are the things I wonder about.

Pictures of said equipment failures or saves appreciated! 

Something related–and we're about to address in the next issue of GRM: Even during "just a track day," you're still going fast, and fire burns just as hot. 

David S. Wallens said:

fire burns just as hot. 

It's somehow hotter when you aren't expecting it.

You guys make a good point.

I remember seeing a video recently of a youtuber girl drifting her corvette. It caught fire and came through the firewall. She tried to get her extinguisher out, and the clip was still in it and ziptied, so she couldn't get it to work. She was wearing leggings... very lucky she wasn't seriously burned. Sealed firewall, fire proof clothing, extinguisher that was ready, or fire supression... all could have made this situation less catastrophic. 

Another video was of two guys drifting an FD RX7 and what looked like a fireball came straight through the firewall and into the guys faces. They exited the vehicle very quick as there was no cage/harnesses to contend with. They were wearing shorts, no gloves, and the driver had extremely nasty looking burns on his hands just from a split second of being in a fireball...

Street clothes are allowed at track days but I wish people would consider whats at stake here. 

Looking forward to that article David!

Tangentially related:

Years ago I read about a trackday event, where the next session was lined up to head out, but they placed them way out on the pit-to-track road due to the big group. Since the previous session wasn't quite done yet, those cars would come screaming by the front of the line, and sure enough, someone lost it and their car came spinning in, hitting several cars. There was all sorts of finger pointing, but the lessons remain: if you track your car, be okay with having it totaled; never turn your back when near the course, and out beyond the wall; wear protective gear!

So coming from motorcycle road racing I've seen some really bad things that I won't go into deeply, suffice to say that you need to look after you.

I installed a fire system and cell in my Datsun even though it wasn't mandated.

My D-sports Racer caught fire at about 130 (motor grenaded oil fire) the fire system did it's job.

I also bought a HANS before it was required; A friend died in accident and the HANS would have saved his life.

If your driving at track days with nothing more then a 3 point seat belt and an open face helmet you need to drive accordingly. My opinion naturally, but a track day isn't about driving your road car 10/10ths. My son has been running his Lexus and I had a long talk with him about leaving a lot of margin in a particular corner. The point of track days is to drive your car quickly in a controlled environment.

The best safety item is your brain; I won't run certain tracks in my Formula 500 and I also won't run with groups that aren't 100% serious about safety even in my fully caged Datsun.  

I'll echo the "you have to look out for you." Besides all the physical safety gear, every driver needs to always be questioning, well, everything. We all got a harsh reminder about that with the crash of the B17 at the Texas airshow a couple months ago. The air boss had commanded the differing aircraft to fly overlapping orbits at the same altitude. There's a standing rule that pilots at airshows can "tap out" of any situation where they feel unsafe,  yet no one protested. Same applies to track day events, where if the organizers tell you to do something you consider unsafe, refuse.

One of the biggest culprits I have seen is simply - safety culture. How are you made to feel if you go to an event safety person to express a safety concern? Are you made to feel like a weenie and generally blown off? Dismissed out of hand?  Made to feel like the nail sticking up that will get the hammer? 

I know it's happened to me. How many of the rest of you? Have you felt discouraged from saying something about something you saw because of it? 

You can even see some of the culture struggle on this forum in the backlash in the cleetus McFarland thread. (Granted, it's indirect) but there is cultural backlash from being the person to say "if something doesn't change someone could get hurt or killed". 

One of the things I haven't seen mentioned yet is the mental state of the driver...  fatigue and distraction can contribute to on-track incidents.  I'll often pass on the last session of the day if I'm feeling a little worn-out.  I rarely set my fast times late, and brain-fade can be just as bad as brake-fade on track. 

Doesn't matter if the car is 100% if the driver is not 100%.

Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) said:

David S. Wallens said:

fire burns just as hot. 

It's somehow hotter when you aren't expecting it.

Years ago, I had a candle flare up–I think a few old wicks ignited. The was in a little glass holder.

So I grabbed the holder so I could put the candle in the sink–which wasn't that far away.

Dang that hurt, and I wound up with giant blisters on my thumb and forefinger.

And it was just a candle....

There are a ton of variables that play into driver fatigue. Diet, exercise, what they did the night before the HPDE/track day/race event/etc. That's one safety variable thats extremely hard to control and any controls put in place for this would limit this extremely niche audience into an even smaller sample. 

My observations from track days/HPDEs/anything where you can bring your street car onto a racing surface, is that tech and safety inspections prior too are lacking. There's a video out there of an E36 burning to the ground because some kid left a can of brake cleaner or something similar in his trunk. He also had the battery cover off and the pressurized can managed to hit the positive an negative at the same time and poof. 

Something like that could have easily been resolved with a safety check for loose items in the trunk. 

This is a HUGE safety failure. 

The last New Years Eve champcar race at Sebring. There was like 40 minutes left in the race, an E36 lost control going into the hairpin, bounced off a couple concrete walls under the bridge. I did two more laps before a yellow or Code 35 was ever initiated. Apparently the driver was unconscious and luckily the car wasn't on fire. Not sure who the fault is on for that, corner workers? Track? Series? Either way, it's a huge concern that needs to be addressed by all parties there.  Especially with all of the debris that was in the middle of the track that could have caused another incident. 

Tom1200 said:

The best safety item is your brain; I won't run certain tracks in my Formula 500 and I also won't run with groups that aren't 100% serious about safety even in my fully caged Datsun.  

Why not run certain tracks? I think that you are getting at something that I'm struggling with as well. There is a track close to me that is high speed, has walls, and a car gets totaled at just about every event my club runs. Rain makes it worse, and it always rains here. Someone died there last year with another club... rollover apparently, don't know why or how. I'm very hesitant to visit that track at all, which is a bummer because apparently it's a great facility. 

In reply to DirtyBird222 :

I dunno, you may be just be making an argument against BMW owners or E36s!  

*ducks* 

:)

As a previous E36 owner, it's a combo of both. 

DirtyBird222 said:

... what they did the night before the HPDE/track day/race event/etc...

This is huge and I have consciously tried to get better at it myself. When I'm racing the BMW I'm almost always by myself. Towing to the track, setting up in the paddock and getting the car ready is all on me. This is by no means a complaint but it takes a physical toll. With both the vintage races and endurance stuff, I'm also seeing people I only see a few times a year so I want to be with them which usually means staying out late and not getting enough rest. It's not unusual for me to run my best times of a weekend on Saturday afternoon. I think a big factor in that is fatigue driven.

Let alone lap times, it always crops up as a safety concern, as you bring up.

In reply to AxeHealey :

During most trackside media functions involving pro drivers, they're pulled out early and sent to bed. 

MaxC said:

Tom1200 said:

The best safety item is your brain; I won't run certain tracks in my Formula 500 and I also won't run with groups that aren't 100% serious about safety even in my fully caged Datsun.  

Why not run certain tracks? I think that you are getting at something that I'm struggling with as well. There is a track close to me that is high speed, has walls, and a car gets totaled at just about every event my club runs. Rain makes it worse, and it always rains here. Someone died there last year with another club... rollover apparently, don't know why or how. I'm very hesitant to visit that track at all, which is a bummer because apparently it's a great facility. 

Are you talking about PIR? There's some folks here who have done HPDEs there you could talk to. Javelin is one I know has and I think there's a couple more. 

Apexcarver said:

I know it's happened to me. How many of the rest of you? Have you felt discouraged from saying something about something you saw because of it? 

 I haven't personally but I can appreciate what you're talking about, and can see this being a big concern. Thankfully it seems erring on the side of safety has been winning out more often than not in recent years with a lot of clubs mandating things like HANS, fire suppression, etc. 

To your point, I think that blade cuts both ways. In my experience while trying to build my first racecar and go racing in it, I heard/read so many comments blowing out of proportion safety issues... and noticed a lot of inconsistencies. I think a lot of this crap raises the bar unnecessarily (actually or perceived) for new people trying to enter the sport . What I mean by that is comments like:

"I'd never get in a racecar without [insert safety item or feature]." Hear this a lot regarding containment seats, door bar design, fuel cells, etc. 

"I'd never wear a neck-donut" I get HANS is the answer... There's still clubs that don't require HANS. Isn't a neck donut an improvement over nothing?

"Is that seat material fire proof?" Think about this: isn't your fire suit rated in a number of seconds before serious burns? Are you looking at everything in your car with this level of scrutiny? Do you realize your dashboard is not "fire proof"?

Not to name names, and these are generalized gripes not targeting any specific clubs: Some clubs have stricter requirements than anyone else for things like roll cage base plate thickness, but then they won't require a dash bar, or a window net. Some clubs allow ERW tubing for their roll cages... I *think* some even still allow bolt-in cages. Some don't require a HANS, and a fire extinguisher is allowed instead of suppression... Another annoying example, I purchased a new compliant fire suppression system for my new build. By the time I made it to tech at my first race they said my system was no longer allowed in the rules (for the following year) because it was not SFI. 

I'm cool with a high personal standard of safety, but I can't stand the safety elitist attitudes that run off new people or price out people with lower budgets.  It's very off putting when you're new and building a car, trying to comply with the regs, and still trying to afford it all. 

I appreciate and support rules evolving that *increase* safety, but new rules have to be rooted in actual evidence that a new rule is going to improve safety enough to warrant the change (I think within my rambling, this is the key point of this thread). Additionally, improvements aren't free so rule changes should always be balanced with how it impacts racers safety vs. budgets. 

Thankfully, I'm beyond the total newb  racer stage. Budgets aren't so tight, and I can look to making incremental safety improvements beyond the rules, which was barely on my radar in the beginning. 

thatsnowinnebago said:

MaxC said:

Tom1200 said:

The best safety item is your brain; I won't run certain tracks in my Formula 500 and I also won't run with groups that aren't 100% serious about safety even in my fully caged Datsun.  

Why not run certain tracks? I think that you are getting at something that I'm struggling with as well. There is a track close to me that is high speed, has walls, and a car gets totaled at just about every event my club runs. Rain makes it worse, and it always rains here. Someone died there last year with another club... rollover apparently, don't know why or how. I'm very hesitant to visit that track at all, which is a bummer because apparently it's a great facility. 

Are you talking about PIR? There's some folks here who have done HPDEs there you could talk to. Javelin is one I know has and I think there's a couple more. 

No. Funny enough, that's my home track and I don't mind racing there. Yes there's walls but I think they are low enough risk that I do race there. The one I'm talking about is Pacific Raceways. My understanding: there is a straight that merges with the drag strip, lined with walls. I think that people get caught out in the wet and oversteer where it merges and head straight for the wall. There are also some runoff areas that go right into a hill, which can roll a car easy. I may be making a bigger deal out of these things than I need to. We'd love to race there in the dry, but we may just try a test day with the whole team and see what we all think about it. 

Rodan said:

One of the things I haven't seen mentioned yet is the mental state of the driver...  fatigue and distraction can contribute to on-track incidents.  I'll often pass on the last session of the day if I'm feeling a little worn-out.  I rarely set my fast times late, and brain-fade can be just as bad as brake-fade on track. 

Doesn't matter if the car is 100% if the driver is not 100%.

Good point. One of our rival teams toward the very end of an 8 hour enduro, pulled in the pits and called it a day. I went and talked to him and he said his coolsuit was just not enough, and he was not making good decisions. Said he was pulling it on the trailer before he puts it in the wall. I think it was around 95 degrees that day. Wise choice.

MaxC said:

Rodan said:

One of the things I haven't seen mentioned yet is the mental state of the driver...  fatigue and distraction can contribute to on-track incidents.  I'll often pass on the last session of the day if I'm feeling a little worn-out.  I rarely set my fast times late, and brain-fade can be just as bad as brake-fade on track. 

Doesn't matter if the car is 100% if the driver is not 100%.

Good point. One of our rival teams toward the very end of an 8 hour enduro, pulled in the pits and called it a day. I went and talked to him and he said his coolsuit was just not enough, and he was not making good decisions. Said he was pulling it on the trailer before he puts it in the wall. I think it was around 95 degrees that day. Wise choice.

I have a personal rule of thumb that if I start making more than one mistake per lap (missing apex, going wider than intended, etc) I "black flag myself" and call it a day.

As a relative newcomer to HPDE with about 6-7 events under my belt I'm always burned out and mentally overloaded by the last session of the day. The lightbulb finally went off in my last event and I bailed and exited the track after 5 minutes of the last session.

Given how many others are noting the same physical and mental fatigue effects I'm surprised it isn't more commonly discussed in the classroom and debrief sessions in the events I've participated in.

Since we live >150 miles from any track, it serves double duty to pack up Sunday at lunch time. Time to get home and unload, but also prevents doing the last one or two sessions when I've already had my fill and getting tired.

Speaking of tracks that some consider unsafe, I have mixed feelings about Willow Springs. In my old Datsun I couldn't go fast enough to really scare myself. With Kimini, it was gear limited (by small tires) to around 130 mph, so still wasn't too bad. With Midlana, its top speed was 160mph, and could achieve it, so I could scare myself driving there, passing start/finish at around 140mph. Anyway, I've recently been reading comments on YT Willow videos and yeah, it's very unforgiving of going off. There are a couple YT videos, one of a Mustang going off in T8/9, and traveling a long way (unable to stop) before hitting a drainage swale and becoming seriously airborne, then hitting a cement wall. Then there was someone who went off in T2, a large constant radius "U-turn" which I really like. Thing is, I never really went around it at 10/10, so never gave any though about what lay beyond. A guy went off in a Porsche and couldn't stop before hitting a steep upward embankment that pretty much stopped his car instantly. He was seriously hurt.

Anyway, I know that this thread is about safety gear, but I think one bit of safety equipment is mental, doing "reconnaissance" on a track before driving it, to learn what's going to get hit if you go off anywhere on-track. One more aspect of Willow is soil composition. It's typical SoCal desert soil, a mix of sand/sandstone/rocks, in sort of a natural cementation, topped by loose material. Hit that sideways and a tire can catch on a half buried rock, causing the car to roll. Point being, knowing that means realizing that doing anything other than keeping the car straight is bad news, and so on.

Apexcarver said:

One of the biggest culprits I have seen is simply - safety culture. How are you made to feel if you go to an event safety person to express a safety concern? Are you made to feel like a weenie and generally blown off? Dismissed out of hand?  Made to feel like the nail sticking up that will get the hammer? 

 

I know it's happened to me. How many of the rest of you? Have you felt discouraged from saying something about something you saw because of it? 

 

You can even see some of the culture struggle on this forum in the backlash in the cleetus McFarland thread. (Granted, it's indirect) but there is cultural backlash from being the person to say "if something doesn't change someone could get hurt or killed". 

 

 

As recently as five years ago, one of the local dirt tracks we raced at, allowed drivers to race with jeans and an SFI jacket. One night in the drivers meeting, they announced that they had to wear "fireproof" gloves.  After all the cussing and whining stopped, I asked why they had to wear gloves but could still race in greasy jeans. Talk about being the A-hole of the night.  But I told them, some of you guys are my friends and even the ones that aren't, I don't want to see get hurt. Most of them got over it pretty quickly, and the ones that didn't thought I was an A-hole before. Stupid thing about it was most of them had the rest of the suit in their trucks.