Tweet
Sometimes something that looks safe to you is not. When I ran the Whelen Modified race at Daytona they made us watch a video on the updates to the seats this year and the seat belts for 2015...the video was actually pretty amazing in the fact that NASCAR does an incredible amount of testing, and I mean incredible, to make sure the drivers are safe. I know this is different as they are going 200mph, but it really is not different at all. You can die in a car going 45. I used to run speed boats that went 120-180 mph, well one time we were at a poker run and four people died when the boat flipped over turning back to the dock...they were going 60 at the time. I know its apples and oranges but in your head you think well if it flips going that slow I'll just jump out, or if I hit the wall going 50 mph I'll just hold my neck up or this flimsy aluminum pad on the right side of my head will keep my neck still, or my head will never reach that bar...when its just not true. The force on a body during impact is remarkable.
I mentioned the Nascar thing because every time there is an injury they put in hours and hours to make sure it doesn't happen again (even something like a broken collar bone), I feel like the safety is up to par in late models but not in many of the lower classes. If you are not a driver, just a spectator and you watched a super stock go around the track, then a late model a month later, you would say they are both going really fast. Even though it is a super stock, they are still going very fast, 80mph and 100mph are the same when you hit a concrete wall. I would never get in a car without a full containment seat and a HANS, I did when I drove sportsman and looking back it was so stupid. I put those aluminum head rails on the seat and hit the wall at New Smyrna, the thing was bent straight out 90* from where it started.
I wish every short track in the country was required to put up safer barriers like on the Nascar tracks, I know its completely unrealistic because of the cost, I just wish somehow it would happen. Maybe there should be a sanctioning body for the safety of short tracks and car requirements throughout the country. I just can't stand to see a young child get killed doing this.
I mentioned the Nascar thing because every time there is an injury they put in hours and hours to make sure it doesn't happen again (even something like a broken collar bone), I feel like the safety is up to par in late models but not in many of the lower classes. If you are not a driver, just a spectator and you watched a super stock go around the track, then a late model a month later, you would say they are both going really fast. Even though it is a super stock, they are still going very fast, 80mph and 100mph are the same when you hit a concrete wall. I would never get in a car without a full containment seat and a HANS, I did when I drove sportsman and looking back it was so stupid. I put those aluminum head rails on the seat and hit the wall at New Smyrna, the thing was bent straight out 90* from where it started.
I wish every short track in the country was required to put up safer barriers like on the Nascar tracks, I know its completely unrealistic because of the cost, I just wish somehow it would happen. Maybe there should be a sanctioning body for the safety of short tracks and car requirements throughout the country. I just can't stand to see a young child get killed doing this.
Comment