Tow Hooks in 05

[JackH55]

The Board of Directors passed some rule changes for 05 one of them is:

Item 3.
Effective 1/1/05, delete the last sentence of GCR Section 17.31 as follows:

17.31. TOWING EYES
All cars without an exposed roll bar shall have a towing eye or strap, front and rear that does not dangerously protrude from the bodywork when the car is racing, to be used for flat towing or hauling the vehicle. A removable towing eye carried inside the car is not acceptable. These towing eyes or straps shall be easily accessible without removal or manipulation of bodywork or other panels. Towing eye minimum ID two (2) inches. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx
The required tow eyes must be strong enough to tow the car from a hazard such as a gravel trap. Front tow eye may be mounted in the driver / passenger side window openings, or any location forward of the windshield. If mounted in the driver/passenger side window openings, it must be attached to the forward roll cage down tube as close to the base of the windshield as possible. If the front tow eye is located in the side window openings there shall be one on each side of the car. Rear tow eyes must be accessible rearward of the rear axle centerline.

Jack

[RSTPerformance]

Originally posted by JackH55:
The Board of Directors passed some rule changes for 05 one of them is:

Item 3.
Effective 1/1/05, delete the last sentence of GCR Section 17.31 as follows:

17.31. TOWING EYES
All cars without an exposed roll bar shall have a towing eye or strap, front and rear that does not dangerously protrude from the bodywork when the car is racing, to be used for flat towing or hauling the vehicle. A removable towing eye carried inside the car is not acceptable. These towing eyes or straps shall be easily accessible without removal or manipulation of bodywork or other panels. Towing eye minimum ID two (2) inches. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx
The required tow eyes must be strong enough to tow the car from a hazard such as a gravel trap. Front tow eye may be mounted in the driver / passenger side window openings, or any location forward of the windshield. If mounted in the driver/passenger side window openings, it must be attached to the forward roll cage down tube as close to the base of the windshield as possible. If the front tow eye is located in the side window openings there shall be one on each side of the car. Rear tow eyes must be accessible rearward of the rear axle centerline.

Jack

If anyone has good links for these please post them so we can pick and choose what works best for our cars. Any ideas/ pictures would be awesome to share.

Stephen

[gran racing]

I too am looking for soft tow hook ideas. You and Ray are both looking for soft tow hooks, right?

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Dave Gran
NER ITB #13
'87 Honda Prelude si

[nlevine]

Turner Motorsport sells a soft tow stap that works on their BMWs, perhaps it can be adapted for other applications.

See http://www.turnermotorsport.com/html/detai...?PRODUCT_ID=TOW for more info.

-noam

[MMiskoe]

I haven't figured out how to make it happen, but a nylon lifting strap would work. Loop it through a body mounted tow hook then zip tie it so it is accessible and doesn't drag on the ground. Let the zip ties get snapped off in the event it gets used.

McMaster.com page 1322, PN 9072T631

Did this rule get passed, I saw it listed in the area of stuff that was considered but not cast in stone??

[RacerBill]

Just downloaded the 2005 GCR this morning. 17.31 (pg GCR - 107 & 108, still shows that two eyes are not required but highly recommended for SS, T & IT.

[EV]

As an EV worker I thank the board for making this change. At my home track (and many others) the gravel traps collect many kinds of cars, even touring cars.

We do our best to pull them on a hot course when they are in a bad place. The job is made much safer when there is a good strong place to attach a tow strap.

I have seen many flavors of strap. Steel cable extensions of the factory tie down hooks, standard strap material sticking out of a hole in the bumper cover, steel re-bar welded in a loop to a piece of frame. They all work. I use something like this when the hook hole is small Sewn loopsThese things are very strong and when attached to something solid behind or just below the bumper they will hold and are very small. As someone else suggested, tire wrap/tape it to the bumper and it will stay out of the way.

The other suggestion I have is mark the hook point with a large arrow or the word “TOW”. Wading through the gravel to only have to crawl under the car to look for a hook point with cars flying by is not what I call fun. It’s hard to watch for another “visitor” when your head is under the car.


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Enjoy,
Bill