Casey et al...
To add to your points...
I believe this latest fatality is #3 in vintage that I'm aware of, the Cobra
driver at Del Mar, one in the East, and now this one (not counting events
like the Silver State Classic, or La Carrera).
We all need to also keep in mind that our cars were designed and prepared to
race competitively for 1 or 2 seasons before being "retired". Yet here we
are racing them 30+ years and still going. I had a recent front hub failure
on what looked like a very substantial and strong casting. I'll bet that
there's lots of stress related failures out there just waiting to bite us, in
spite of good preparation and inspection. Everyone wants to blame tires and
horsepower...they contribute, certainly, but AGE is just as much a factor.
I try to do absolutely as much as possible for safety on my car...added dual
master cylinder, fuel cell, on-board fire system, kill switch, lots of roll
bar padding, good belts with good mounts. I retorque the wheels every time I
go out. I also always wear 3 layers of Nomex, AND a neck brace (especially
after seeing that ESPN Palm Springs incident replay). We do a lot more now
for safety than when our cars were raced initially, and the results
show...but we can always be on the lookout to do more.
Myles H. Kitchen
1965 Lotus Cortina Mk1 #128
|