Re: Track Safety

[Brian M Kennedy <kennedy@xxxxxx>]

Duane Collie wrote:

> 1) To prevent dying: A).  Leave your convertible at home or buy a cage for
> it.  Those silly little pop-up gizmos won't do diddly squat if you roll the
> car at speed.

Agreed.  But how about the convertibles that come with hardtop options.  Is the
hardtop for a convertible as strong as a standard coupe hardtop?  I would guess
no; but how much weaker is it?


> B).  Get a current SA-Rated Motorsports helmet and a neck
> collar regardless of what you are driving. SA rated helmets are designed for
> multiple impacts and have a fire retardant liner in them....motorcyle
> (M-rated) helmets don't and are designed for one Big Impact.  Neck collars
> prevent neck injuries from the helmet whipping when you crash.  I had one on
> three days ago when we went sideways in to the trees....my helmet was
> scarred - my ribs are tender - but my neck is fine even though my helmet
> whipped into the C-pillar from the impact.

I agree.  I see very few people wearing collars -- and yet the neck is so weak
and so critical to healthy living.  As much as the helmet protects the head, it
actually endangers the neck -- unless you have a collar.  And collars are dirt
cheap, trivial to put on, and virtually unnoticable while wearing a helmet.
I can see no excuse.


> Why this is not drilled upon in the Driver's Meetings is beyond me.  The
> typical pre-session Driver meeting is far more concerned with pass waves
> (don't even get me started on those) than how to handle an off-track event.
> If you don't know what to do when you go off the track (and you WILL go off
> the track if you do these days enough) then ask someone how to do it.
> Better learn it the right way and how to recognize when you're cooked.

My guess is that competitive adrenaline is a major culprit.  If you're doing
okay, you want to get back to the race ASAP.  My suggestion is for all track
events to _require_ you to come to a full stop before re-entering the track
anytime you leave it.  Anything else, and you're DSQ.  Then, when someone
leaves the track, their competitive juices will be saying "Get to full stop
ASAP so that I can get back to racing.!"  And of course, that's just the 
behavior you want from them when they go off track.  Thoughts?
  

> Finally - an open question....we have a whole bunch of Bimwads here on the
> Digest in the computer and software industry.  Why can't someone develop a
> SIMULATOR program that can be used on a PC to simulate various senarios  and
> consequences to an off-track experience?  How hard can this be?

It can be done fairly easy based on an existing simulator such as Gran Tourismo.
Somehow, I suspect they'll not consider it to have a lot of market appeal.  But
perhaps we could appeal to their moral side -- that they'd be saving lives.

It could actually be pretty cool in Gran Tourismo.  First, handling the off-track
excursion could be one of the tests required to get a license.  Second, they could
make the off-track areas realistic during the races, such that when you go off
track,
you be very careful so that you don't crash your ride.  (Note that you have to win
races to earn money to buy better and better cars -- it would be quite devastating
to total your car in the game.)  That would definitely encourage people to switch
mindset from "win the race" to "save my car (butt)" whenever they go off track.

Cool idea!  Now how do we convince them to implement it?


Brian

------------------------------