Excellent points Ed. One again, preparation and planning are important. We
had a starting line check list that we all memorized and we practiced it before
the drivers meeting at each event.
My partner Howard Nafzger who designed, built and drove the car
spent time in the car, at home, locating all of the switches, fire bottle
controls and chute releases with his eyes closed. That paid off when
the engine blew and filled the car with smoke.
He also practiced getting out (fully suited & strapped in) in less than
5 seconds.
Your advice is especially valuable to the new folks.
Bryan
The Weldons wrote:
> List ---- while we're on the subject--
> One aspect of safety gear that deserves serious consideration is making it as
> easy and foolproof as possible for the driver to get suited up and settled in
> the car. In many racing venues, especially with and experienced driver and
> crew that's not a big issue. But for us LSR guys we are often in pretty hot
> conditions and wait as long as we can until suiting up. In the last 5 minutes
> before you push off any number of little things like a seatbelt that won't
> tighten properly, a misplaced arm restraint or whatever can throw off
> everyone's timing and frazzle the inexperienced driver. These are the
> conditions where we forget to pull out the fire bottle pins, turn on the water
> pump, lose a dzus button, take the rag out of the air inlet, etc. For
> example, go for contrasting colors on the suit, harness, gloves, arm
> restraints so they're easily visible while your crewmember's eyes adjust from
> bright sun to the darkness of a tight cockpit. You ain't going to be on the
> cover of Sports Illustrated so color coordination shouldn't be a big issue.
> Another thought here is think about how visible you'll be to rescuers climbing
> out of your car while being a mile away from anyone with heat waves rising off
> the salt or lost in El Mirage dust clouds. You might want to rethink the idea
> of a red firesuit to match a red car.
> Ed Weldon
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