motodog

not a fun topic but its a factor every time you are out on the track. what kind of saftey equipment and clothing do you guys use. i ask as i had my head in the ground and another concusion and a kid ambulanced out from fools on the track. i ran him over. i may be getting a lil old for this. not my fault!

trapp

I have never seen anyone hurt on the car yet in 3 years....Some off road adventures but nothing major..
Few guys got banged up a the redline time attack at the autobahn on sunday time trials this year but nothing to write home about..

MartyZ51

I've been doing this for 11 years in 4 different states with events from Autocross to Road courses.

I've seen 20+ cars hit some sort of obstacle like a wall, barrier, or body of water. I've been at events where cars hit light poles, go up staircases (Utah), through fences, teeter on their sides (Minnesota), and/or take out the timing lights. I've only seen one car to car collision on the track. I've seen 2 car collision in the pits. In all this, I've been lucky enough to never be at an event where the driver left in an ambulance or helicopter.

People on this forum and at the events will tell you that it's not a matter of "if" you will damage a car but "when" it will happen. I have been off track on several occasions but have never been involved in any body damage. The sport can be dangerous but mostly it's just expensive. Every event has a cause and effect and 80% of the reason people wreck or go off-track is still driver error. This means that it's mostly controllable which I view as an acceptable level of risk.

GettReal

I have been at the track when quite a few cars have been introduced to walls or even a ditch, but havent seen anybody seriously hurt (thank goodness).

I've been repeatedly humbled and observed slightly bruised egos but nothing more than that so far.

I have a 6pt welded cage, race seats, harnesses and head and neck restraint. I also have a small extinguisher. I still need to step up and get proper clothing, but right now its at least long sleeve, pants natural fiber materials.

longdaddy

we did a poll on this before, over 50% of respondents here were confident in stock setup + helmet protecting them at DEs. the rest favor some sort of hybrid DE/TT setup with only a few people voting for full racing safety setup

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/auto...-opinions.html

i have driven a person home with sore backs/neck after he totalled his car but that's about all the experience I have had with track injuries. I run full containment seat, hans and 4pt rollbar and would upgrade to full cage/window nets etc in a heartbeat if I did not have to drive the car to the tracks hundreds of miles away under its own power.

AU N EGL

Injuries:

Most I have seen were heat related, Heat stroke being number one

Next were heart attacks; stress, heat and age related.

Then cut fingers from changing car parts in the paddock.

safety clothing:

Long cotton pants,
Long sleeves for the most part. short sleeves for very hot months is OK
or fire suit, which is best
Full face helmet
driving gloves
driving shoes

l8_apexer

Make no mistake-- this is a VERY serious sport. People can and DO get hurt. In the 25 years of track driving,over 15 years of racing, and 20 years of instructing-- fortunately the injuries have been few-- however:

- two friends (instructors) went over the wall and landed upside down at Mid-Ohio-- one was in a coma for over a month. A ball joint on the car broke.

and the hardest one for me to live with:

A young man from my church, family friends. Developed a love for the cars from following me around since he was in high school. Put him to work, adopted him as a "helper" at track events, even got him a few rides. A few year later, he's doing track events and time trials. A year ago, the day after he clinched the season championship, he had an incident on track, and hit the wall at about 120 mph and was killed instantly. I was so shook up and upset that I couldn't even attend the funeral-- I couldn't face his parents. his photo is on my desk and his memory even time I put my helmet on I remind myself that I am taking some serious risks.


DO NOT COMPROMISE ON SAFETY EQUIPMENT OR ASSUME THAT NOTHING WILL HAPPEN TO YOU.

racerbob4

No one said what you can do to look after your health while in a track or race car. You should get a SCCA approved drivers suit and full face helmet, some heavy duty gloves and fireproff shoes. I would also strongly consider a HANS device as most racetracks nowdays have walls for you to hit head on. You also should have competiton seat and shoulder belts with 6 points of attachment. Also its a good idea to have a racing seat that hold you in place.

John Shiels

do a search on this forum you will see deaths and accidents have occurred and been discussed.

L98Terror

I've seen someone killed and someone injured real bad but made a full recovery, I've also seen some thing where people should have been hurt but walked away.


You never know, if it's your time it's your time. It's by no means safe but you do choose how hard to push.

AU N EGL

HP mods and R compound tires are sexy as hell. Safety mods are the mods ppl NEED to invest in, yet pray they never have to be used.

drivinhard

I bruise or break my wallet every time I go

sperkins

Gosh. That's even hard to read.

95jersey

Get a Miata. I drove one at Pocono and even on the long back strait could barely hit 95mph. I hit 155+ at NJMP aimed strait at a tire barrier.

As a part time instructor, the first thing I tell my students on the first lap is to look at what you can possible hit (not flaggers, lines, or cones). But look at each corner and what kind of imoveable objectives that could be hit. Then based on that, choose which corners you want to be conservative and which corners you can let it hang out. Not to scare the student, but my advice is to always have in the back of your mind not if you will hit it, but WHEN you will hit it. If you go into each track day with a bit of fear, hopefully it works as a bit of a reality check.

Gearhead Jim

I saw perhaps a dozen totaled cars at HPDE events, amazed that no one went to the hospital.

OTOH, I saw a beautiful C4 destroyed at an autocross and driver ambulanced (I heard he ended up ok) when he hit the wall head-on at one of those short oval tracks. Wrong place for an autocross.

davidfarmer

other than RACING related injuries, I've never seen any DE related injuries EXCEPT for those due from heat exhaustion this summer. I've seen lots of accidents, but never any serious injuries first-hand at DE's.

95jersey

It was SO hot that I actually sat out of HPDE from July - Aug. I just plain refuse to deal with the heat from the car and the humidity.

cire96

As one who does a fair bit of insrtructing and a lot of competitive road racing (10+ events per season), I couldn't dissagree more strongly. Following the oft quoted tome that you will drive where you look, getting a new driver fixated on things he can hit is a bad idea. Better that he learn to look at where he needs to turn in and track out. The rest takes care of itself, because if he does that, he'll leave the pavement a lot less often.
Cire
P.S. I agree on getting a Spec Miata!

95jersey

It's not so much that I point out things that are dangerous as much as I want the student to be aware of not only what is on the track, but what is off the track. This is why I do it on the first lap, as that is the slowest and your usually following a chain gang, so it is a good time to gauge your surrounding (like flaggers) and be aware of them. Once we get moving, I then make sure the student is focused on driving the proper line.

I agree with your comments, but we all need to be aware what is off the track as much as what is on the track. I had a buddy who was pushing the envelope VERY hard in a particular corner, and I simply reminded him there was a concrete barrier only 2 feet from the track just after the apex in that corner, and if he lost it, that would most likely be the end, and that he should take that into consideration when judging how much further he can push it in that corner. I use this type of judgement at Watkins Glen all the time. I am not looking at the guardrails or barriers, but I want to be aware they are there and what the consequences could be.

His response was that he was SO focused on driving the line, that he NEVER even saw the barrier or realized it was there and a potential threat.

cire96

Jersey:
While I still generally dissagree with putting off track matters into the student's psyche, I'll yield that if a particular corner has a higher risk of trouble, I will likewise poit that out to a student.
Cire