I would think that if he put on a firesuit, the open face lid should be fine. Especially in this venue. It may be a risk, But So Is Racing. Somewhere along the lines you need to think about the Fans and what they like to see and to me Thats Individuals! As for insurance, its way out of hand but in my opinion thats because of the Lack of Competition. For the most part, I think K&N have pretty well cornered the market, so why should the price ever go anywhere but UP. Same thing wrong with health care in this country. It goes up and up because they pass along the cost to our Insurance. VICious Cycle.
All the things said regarding safty may be true to an extent but it has also opened up All New Problems! We keep seeing younger and younger Kids in these Fire Breathing Monsters because they have never been Hurt and are Fearless and Because There Parents seem to think that a Race Car can be built that they wont get hurt in. The Kids are smaller and smaller, The Visibility is down to nothing but forward vision and most of the time a Sprint Car is not pointed in a Straight Line is it... I really think we could have less overall problems without some of the newly designed seats, safer they may be, but I think you soon come to a point in a Sprint Car, as well as a Mod and others that we need to be able to get to the Driver better after a wreck. Again, this has to come down to what a driver is comfortable with. There has to be give and take, and once we have rules, well they have to be the same for all or there not rules at all. I have heard it said that Dale Earnhart used a seat out of a Van for years. It's Undeniable that His Death changed saftey rules in all forms of racing but now when I think of Nascar, "and I think about it Less All The Time" you almost get a vision of a Driver riding inside a SuperBall, the tracks nothing more than an overgrown Pin Ball Machines. I guess my point is, its a lot easier to drive over the edge and behond Driver ability, when there is no fear of the consiquences. Racing is Still Dangerous, and like it or not there are still more people out there that go to see a Wreck than just Racing. That may be why you see What the Nascar yahoos are doing.
I think overall, there are a lot worse things going on in racing and life in general than KO. Easy for me to say Good for You KO, and I guess I finally have........Wolfe-e