I think with the late models, and any bigger car really, you have more room for proper structural supports like you mentioned without greatly altering the handling of the car. The midgets and sprints end up being limited in those types of improvement opportunities due to their inherited (outdated) design. I have been told the original roll cage on sprints/midgets/champs was actually for the fuel tank and not the driver, at the time drivers were cheap, but fabricating a new fuel tank was very expensive!

The unfortunate truth of this type of grass roots racing is that there is not enough exposure or big money involved to properly spark a safety boom. When BC died it was a major impact, but even still I am not optimistic that it was a big enough catalyst for proper change. BC got a big response in the news outlets, but how many other drivers died or saw serious injuries from similar accidents over the last few years in all divisions of dirt racing? In all, it is chalked up as an "acceptable risk" for this type of racing. I can understand that thought, but I also strongly believe that we can always improve and work to minimize that risk. But with major changes comes major cost and we are talking about grass roots here. Likely, there would not be a lot of support given for big changes that result in moth balling current designed cars.

I could go on and on with this subject, maybe one day I'll have some means to try and take a stab at doing something about it...