T-Mez: Got this off his FB page. Should be Mandatory in cars

nathans1012 · 8/11/16, 4:25 PM

Got this of T-Mez Facebook page.
Look at top of cage.
In the wake of the Bryan Clauson accident. Glad to see a racer taking extra steps to keep the driver safe.
Should these bars should be mandatory in Sprint Cars, Midgets, and other open wheel cars?

treecitytornado · 8/11/16, 5:01 PM

In my opinion, it can make it harder to get out quickly in certain instances and also harder for rescue workers to get a back board under you, etc.

Racer1039 · 8/11/16, 5:07 PM

Not sure it should be mandatory but the racing community needs to see if there was anything we can learn from his crash. I have no idea what kind of shape the car was in after the crash but I have seen some pictures of BC in the car with questionable headroom... as I have seen with many other sprint and midget drivers. In my opinion the Tall Cage cars should be the standard height... As a driver myself I would never strap into a car if I had questionable headroom.

jjones752 · 8/11/16, 5:40 PM

I'm not sure what pictures you're looking at but all the ones I've seen of the Dooling/Kunz 63 look like Bryan is well down in the cockpit. I'm not sure many people really know where the car took the hit or if a halo would have helped.

xoxide · 8/11/16, 5:56 PM

After a certain point safety needs to be left up to drivers/car owners. Obviously good up to date gear, belts and seats need to be a necessity but halos and stuff like that? Optional.

As a driver I don't feel comfortable with a halo at all and quiet honestly I don't even like my left side extended arm guard.

Also don't believe we need to be speculating on how/what happened to Bryan and what should/needs to be done at this time.

chasinracin2 · 8/11/16, 9:07 PM

I will put this out there for comments to see what others think. #1 what is the lighting like in Belleville? BC was in accident on Friday as well, almost same area of the track as Saturday night. These midgets are so fast on those banks. #2 was the red flag and lights on quick enough to stop the other drivers? Some drivers are so focused on racing they don't see these in time to stop or slow down. I see it every week.

Buster51 · 8/11/16, 9:32 PM

When you enter a turn sidways and there is someone there you are comitted there is nothing you do. Bellville is a very fast place.

Charles Nungester · 8/11/16, 9:38 PM

One, I'll never say its too early to discuss safety but it should be done out of respect.

I think Burton bars will help in some instances light impact and most likely would help in keeping a wheel or other object out of the cockpit or the drivers head area. But Im not convinced this would have prevented BC's. This was a massive impact at IMHO the weakest area of a sprint car. The hoop of the cage. there is a video testing Sprint Car impacts, One from the front, one on the cage top. That video tells everything I need to know, that a COMPLETE REDESIGN of the Cage area is needed Either higher or by Triangulating the support of it.or both.

You'll notice these cars are made up of all kinds of triangle. But there is none in the cage area. Just little ones on the corners of it. The car is made to give a little. Ive seen head ons into concrete walls where it will warp the car and make it look like a zig zag. But this is not crushed like I see the hoop area in that video test.

Im not saying you shouldn't get the drivers cover bars. But I think we either need to redesign the car or have some sort of drivers cage inside the car similar to NHRA. top Fuel or both.

Here is a link to that testing video. I left the link so you have to click it to actually go to the video will not stream here. You will see that those bars would have been useless in this kind of impact.
The video is graphic and uses a test dummy. Watch only if you can stomach it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOsoNGwDTcg

griffithracing · 8/11/16, 9:39 PM

Racing is dangerous .... We all know this.... Let's not butcher our beautiful sport with more mandates and rules....

Charles Nungester · 8/11/16, 9:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chasinracin2

I will put this out there for comments to see what others think. #1 what is the lighting like in Belleville? BC was in accident on Friday as well, almost same area of the track as Saturday night. These midgets are so fast on those banks. #2 was the red flag and lights on quick enough to stop the other drivers? Some drivers are so focused on racing they don't see these in time to stop or slow down. I see it every week.

Commited or not. I do seem to see quicker reaction to yellow and reds where STROBES ARE USED. A red light and a cars tail light out in the parking lot or in the pits are sometimes ignored until they see more than one. A strobe is unmistakable and even with the extreme focus of drivers on their marks it triggers a unmistakable reaction by grabbing their attention.