Pit Fire Incident at VIR????

[Ron Earp]

I was at VIR this weekend but did not witness the pit fire.

I have worked in the pits though for many ECRs and four times at the VIR 13 Hour enduro. I share your concern for pit safety - none of us was want to be injured in the pits for any reason, but fire is a particularly dangerous hazard for obvious reasons. I think that fire safety should be number one on any competitors’ list of concerns when planning out a pit strategy and I also feel the pit stewards should be extremely diligent about fire safety.

But workers and stewards need to be aware of impediments to fire safety that the racers face.

I know one of the big concerns is fuel spillage in the pit area. Some spillage can be avoided simply by reducing human errors with fueling equipment. But our equipment, mandated by the class rules, also contributes to some of the fueling problems.

During ECRs and longer enduros Spec Miatas and SRFs are the most common cars you’ll find on the grid. But SMs must have a stock fuel filler neck with no additional air bleeds nor a dry break connector. The car is either fueled with a bottle and funnel or via a tube device connected to a bottle. Either method will generally result in some spillage, how much depends largely upon the skill of the person doing the fueling. If it were legal to fit a dry break system many competitors would do so although that would add additional cost to the car.

Many of the other cars running ECRs are in the Improved Touring cars class with these vehicles it is permissible to run stock fuel tanks or fuel cells. Either way the fueling procedure is largely the same – a bottle and funnel or some sort of bottle with tube. Basically about the same as an SM car and the results will be similar – some fuel will be spilled.

I think the majority of racers would love to improve the fire safety of their pit area but given the tools most of us are working with, stock tanks, funnels, and bottles, we’re doing pretty well from a safety standpoint.

Increasing the mandatory pit time might help some because the team would have less pressure to fuel the car as quickly as possible.

As Kirk mentioned, what are the suggested changes?