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11/11/18, 6:46 AM   #8
Re: Rule changes encouraged; not mandatory for WAR Sprints 2
darnall
darnall is offline
Senior Member

Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 773
 

As for this particular choice regarding these particular rules... I see at least 2 that don't apply here... if you show up at a WAR show with unsafe wing mounts IK for sure they make you remove all the wings as a penalty

Seems like many of the WAR cars have 4 point nerfbars.... the bulk of the rest are on full length 3 point nerfs... so far not many guys think tiny featherweight qualifying bumpers cotterpinned in the spuds are a speed secret for a nonwing group with a slightly chubby weight rule.

On the others lets remember how we got here.... 10 or so years ago somebody decided that all aluminum can only break, not bend, and all steel can only bend and will never break. since we already knew its dangerous to race with no steering we mandated only steel tie rods and draglinks were good enuf to tie aluminum pittman arms to aluminum steering arms on aluminum spindles... Now most of this contact will just BEND the steering, not break it, and still give the driver some control throughout the rest of the crash..

Usually cars quit steering cause the front axle was knocked out from under the arms... a huge percentage of front axles were knocked out because they clipped a giant yuke tire that, despite its mass, never finished a race night in the place it was set earlier.

Darland and Stanbrough are legends, but even on their best day I can't picture em being able to "Save it" 3 flips into a 12 rotation snap roll because a steel draglink bent without breaking. And you could build tierods outta krypton and kevlar all day long but a yuke tire will still knock the beam out from under the spring and park you. Did we put our heads together, develop a berm profile that allowed an escape path but still discouraged the infield groove, and demand the removal of yuke tire infield markers. No, we let em mandate steel tierods, draglinks and steering hiems.... I don't remember a reduction of wrecked cars continuing on until the broken draglink put em in the wall... but I do seem to remember more stories that included the phrases Hand Injury, Wrist Injury, arm fracture. No need to rush into mandating more steel rods and hiems.

I hate to take part in any discussion focusing on tethers. Unlimited hydroplane raceboats and fighter jets both have amazing crash survival numbers. I tend to think thats because as soon as something goes wonky either the drivers compartment or the pilot are ejected away from the object thats gonna carry all the inertia through each impact...they also get ejected away from fuel storage, spinning prop blades, etc.

If getting the driver away from the equipment helps those guys laugh off a crash why are we trying so hard to keep all these broken parts tied to the same part of the car that the driver is tied to? I remember... a once in a lifetime accident at Knoxville sent most of a front axle assembly over the fence, across the highway and through a hyundai windshield in the grocerystore parkinglot. Everybody said WHAT IF ITD HIT IN THE GRANDSTANDS INSTEAD OF THE HYUNDAI???? We gotta do something about these cars before this once in a lifetime event happens again.... Many of us replied with WHAT IF YER FENCE WAS 16 INCHES TALLER AND KNOCKED IT DOWN... didn't matter..too late.. no way the track can afford to make the fence 2ft taller, especially not in a week.. lets just mandate something in the name of safety.. they were barely on the market a couple weeks prior and now suddenly we need a pair on every wing car front axle in the country this coming weekend. Sure our drivers are now a human pinata with 10 ballbats worth of tethered broken twisted steel rods and tubes swingin at em while in a crash... but thats OK cause all our mandates always lay responsibility back on the teams instead of our facilities. Now the tethers we all had to buy not long ago aren't even OK unless you convert them to wraparound mount... So I hate tethers, the tether people say they suck until you quit bolting them on, we are drastically increasing the chances of another Kevin Gobrecht type injury by keeping steel spears tied to the motorplate, but we act like tethers are great because since the mandate weve not had one more stinking front axle kill a hyundai windshield in a grocerystore parkinglot..... probably really smart of Casey to not rush to mandate that revised mandate