Originally Posted by darnall:
A buddy of mine has been pushing here in MO for 3 years now... does a great job...usually gets 3 times as many cars fired as any other truck during starts or after redflags.. never had a problem until last month.
He got up over a bumper and dented the tank on a sprintcar. Going from the pits over the banking. Got his butt chewed and chewed by the owner and driver.
He was looking at the car afterward and noticed that not only did the bumper not have a kick up post on the top, it was angled down as opposed to flat or angled up a tick... the top of this cars bumper literally sat 9 inches lower than any other car in the pits. The owner didn't want to hear anything about it being his fault that the bumper sat so much lower than anybody else, ended up winning the feature that night, and came back next week with a correctly mounted bumper.
You are absolutely spot on. I've seen it.
There are so many things you have to be alert for and aware of. A race cars push bar may be just fine at the start of the race, but can be damaged during the race. On yellow re-starts or red re-starts you have to look at each cars push bar as you approach them to be sure it is still in a decent position.
You have to be very careful pushing cars out of infields or over the banking because it is easy to get a push bar under or over your push bumper pushing over sharp terrain changes. It is often better to give them a little shove and back off over those big humps then catch back up to them. It sure beats getting a kick up post behind your bumper or lifting the car off the ground when you get your bumper under them.
There is a lot to this. I could make you a list of a dozen things most people never consider about pushing race cars when they are sitting in the stands watching. Unexpected things can happen faster than a persons reaction time. Throw in a wet, slick or muddy surface and the inability to steer away or stop. Your options are limited.
Still the number one problem we face are race cars making sharp left or right turns with a push truck's bumper only inches from those big rear tires.
Two things are always certain. 1. Accidents will happen no matter how proficient or careful you are. 2. The push truck driver will always get the blame.