Heat Index - When Do You Bail?

[TStiles]

After racing for 24 years without a cool suit , I had my 1st encounter with one this weekend @ TWS in ChumpCar.

I started the race @ 4:00 PM , I don't even want to know how hot it was.

As I was strapping in for my 2 hour stint , I'm thinking " I hope this cool suit works " , just about then I began to feel the cool water flow .... Oh baby , that feels great !

After 1.5 hrs I felt great , the cool suit really did make a difference

Then it happened , we had a mechanical issue that left me stranded on course , the truck came to get me , hooked up , then quickly unhooked to attend to a car on fire report , that left me stranded on course for over 30 minutes in full gear in the car ... I'm not sure how that would have turned out without the cool suit.

[spawpoet]

After racing for 24 years without a cool suit , I had my 1st encounter with one this weekend @ TWS in ChumpCar.

I started the race @ 4:00 PM , I don't even want to know how hot it was.

As I was strapping in for my 2 hour stint , I'm thinking " I hope this cool suit works " , just about then I began to feel the cool water flow .... Oh baby , that feels great !

After 1.5 hrs I felt great , the cool suit really did make a difference

Then it happened , we had a mechanical issue that left me stranded on course , the truck came to get me , hooked up , then quickly unhooked to attend to a car on fire report , that left me stranded on course for over 30 minutes in full gear in the car ... I'm not sure how that would have turned out without the cool suit.

I was stranded for around 30 min at my drivers school last summer without a cool suit, and thusfar it's the only time I could say I've been uncomfortable in the car. Without the airflow (even hot), being in the car flat sucked. Grid of course isn't much better, but you only need to sit in the car for up to 10 min at a time.

[jrx13]

For those interested in building your own cool shirt cooler. See my recent post here:

http://www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=962966

[StephF]

Most of the time the heat doesn't bother me. I can remember running LRP a few years back when temps were in triple digits. That bowl gets HOT when the air isn't moving. When you notice sweat tracking across your ribcage and into your eyes when you're going through Big Bend, you know it's hot.
We ran a helmet blower for a few years. It helped, although not as much as a cool suit would. I think now it would be more a matter of picking my spots rather than investing that much in a cool suit, especially since we both have to buy HANS's this winter. Heat like we just had, I would probably just sit it out. We saw 101 here last Friday, on an open, usually cool area. I can only imagine what LRP would have been like!