[Land-speed] Head Restraints...another concept.

[drmayf]

We now have a requirement for lateral head restraints which limit the 
side to side head movement to less than 2 inches on each side.  In my 
case that was pretty doable. I purchased the 45.2 SFI foam from ISP and 
the owner told me how to mold and shape it to fit my car.  That seemed 
to have worked out well for me. Longitudinal head restraint is what we 
have all been chattering away at ala the Head And Neck Support  or HANS 
device. I know there are places where I can purchase just the lanyards 
which attach to my helmet and then to some sort of structure.  Those 
work but in our particular scenarios, may themselves cause some isues. 
For instance, in the case of a fire in the cockpit, I could envision a 
situation where the release straps themselves are burned off to the 
point where a panicky driver could not find the release lanyards or get 
out of the cage because he could not get his head out as it is tethered 
to structure. Even those which have the back board strapped to the 
driver may not offer enough forward movement to get out in the lanyards 
are not released.

Now, how about a latching mechanism ala our seat belts?  Our lap 
restraints in our street vehcilels have belts with inertia mechanisms 
which lock up when a load (impact) happens.  Could somehing like that be 
adapted to prevent forward whip lash by ataching to the helmet?  I could 
see something like this with a bit of development. Also there are 
inertia switches on virtually every new car made today to kill the fuel 
pump for the EFI. Could that switch be adapted to latch a head restraint 
in the event of impact and then release so many seconds after that?  
This also seens to be a configuration which is doable. 

The reason I hate to have my head restraints be unuseable by me in 
getting out of the car is the same reason given for the use of an SFI 
/20 fore suit. The time it takes for the safety crews to get to me. I 
have to be self sufficient for some amount of time. That means if I am 
trapped in the cage, on fire with the release sraps damaged to the 
pooint where I cannot find or use them, I may in fact burn to death in 
the car.  That would be a bad day. On the various venues where the track 
is roughly circular the time for safety to arrive is significantly 
shortened and that is of less concern.  So, are there alternatives to 
the HANS device that might be useable? I think the BNI and USFRA should 
take the lead in researching this issue, because they  have the longest 
venues (11  miles?)  and then perhaps issuing some requests to companies 
for development of a device specific to our sport.

Any additional thoughts?

mayf, rested up now, headed back to the front yard to whip the jungle 
into shape...