I am relatively new to club racing I am in the process of converting my 70 camaro over to road racing from previous endeavors in drag racing. One problem I have with all of the sanctioning bodies’ rules and regs is the use of spec safety equipment that has been analyzed and approved by associations that have a direct relation in funding and support to the manufacturers whose products they are testing and approving for safety use. Common sense would tell you that this is very imprudent. In the passenger car sector of automotive development and safety regulations this would never fly. The manufacturers do pay for the testing but the testing is analyzed and approved by an independent organization. I believe this also leaves the drivers of race cars that participate in races supported by these sanctioning bodies out to dry.
Just as a example i will use the latest sfi 38:1 specification for head and neck restraint devices. On other forums there have been serveral debates about this very subject. Mostly these debates consist of which device is better than the other etc. but the fact is any is better than none. Many people can’t afford to purchase a HANS device yet if you don’t have one and have another product you are required to run with no device. Also the HANS device will only work in frontal impacts which means you have to have a side head restraint system on your seat. Something that is NOT required by the rules and the average racer does not have. Side or angular impacts are much more likely in any racing accident scenario because human instinct will always tell us to try and avoid running straight into something. It’s just the way it is if u head straight for a wall you are going to try recover the car to get it heading away from the wall. So this leaves a huge hole for a safety specification that is supposed to save us.
No safety system will work as designed if the rest of the combination of equipment it was tested with is absent. So how does this come back to sfi? its not their fault that we don’t have the money to buy a seat or the proper belts right? Well most of us see safety as a must and the most important part of our cars. If the driver does not feel safe with their safety equipment they most likely won’t race it. If there is a better alternative to the HANS that is more cost effective for amateur racer then why shouldn’t we be able to use it?
The fact is if you look at all of the professional sanctioning bodies that solely use the HANS device. They do in fact REQUIRE proper lateral support of the head through seats or in formula 1 the cocoon the driver is contained in. And another reason formula 1 can fully support it is they use very high dollar version of the HANS that has been modified specifically for use in formula 1. If WRC drivers were ALLOWED to wear an ISAAC system most of them probably would. I think it would be much more comfortable in that sort of racing for many reasons.
These specifications are to protect the drivers, teammates, and spectators depending on the part we are talking about. But the fact is it must be independent of the individual manufactures. One manufacturer should not be able to tailor the rules to fit their own product. This limits the ability to improve that given product and make it even safer. This saves manufacturers money in the short term because they don’t have to keep developing a better product. But it can lead to many more problems down the road for one the speeds of racing are constantly increasing as well as the development of everything else in a race car. In short i feel that SFI foundation and FIA is at this point very short sighted in its determination of rules. No one product should be a benchmark. The benchmark should be in the data that is required to save the lives in all instances of an accident or breakage that the spec number is supposed to represent.
I posted this here to find out what the general consensus is on this subject. Without us (the racers) these foundations, sanctioning bodies, have NOTHING, but a lot of money tied up. So we should be the ones who decide who tells us how to be safe not the manufacturers that just want our money. I know it sounds bad putting it that way but its the truth greed is a powerful thing and it knows no boundaries. I believe their are enough of us that feel this same way especially with the recent drive to be safer in a already unsafe sport. I think with enough us we could start a movement to really change the way these rules are derived which will inherently save many fellow racers lives for generations to come. Thank you for your comments!
