Track safety improvement ideas

[Bruce Fulper]

All we need is a smart look at safety improvements.

After Blain Johnson died NHRA changed all nat. event tracks to a continuous guardrail. No open spots like the one he hit. I've been thinking abour Erics impact and wondering about calculating the forces that may allow some movement sideways, but not have an adverse affect when continuing moving downtrack.

K-rails can be allowed to move a slight amount. Slot them and set them on pins. If that rail could have moved six inches it may have lessend the impact. Something like that could work. Concrete guys? Anyone?

How about a spotter/scooter running down each lane after each run. That's easy to do. That person could see more than a couple of guys looking over the k-rail.

We've (again) gotten too comfortable with the way things are now.

We need sensible ideas.


"The less I race the crankier I get..."

[Adger Smith]

Bruce,
Wasn't Eric's accident at a test session?
What does a test session have to do with safety issues on Race day?
I'm all for safety, but....

Adger Smith

[Bruce Fulper]

I don't understand your confusion. A very fast car was getting ready to run. Doesn't matter if it's a test day or not. If there had been an accommodating guardrail if you will, maybe the side impact would have been lessened. I believe we'll see a design change in our lifetime.

Just looking for ideas. It is agreed we need improvements?

"The less I race the crankier I get..."

[John Kelley]

Considering the speeds and awesome acceleration I think drag racing has a surpring safety record.
When was the last time a fuel funny car driver died ?? Dickie Harrell ??
There are more sportsman drivers dying in accidents that not many people get excited about.It makes me sick that more isn't done at the sportsman level !!
Do you know what you would do if your throttle stuck ?? The track runs out real fast at 120-170 MPH !! Have a plan so it's REACTION not something you have to think about !! A few minutes sitting in your car going over various scenerios could save your life !
I apologize if I upset anyone........

[Robert Pare Racing]

I'm kinda surprised that someone hasn't mentioned the use of the safer wall barrier system that is used in other bodies of racing.

[Adger Smith]

OK, Bruce Now I understand your first post. I didn't understand where you were going. You know you can & have gone some strange palces... :--)
I agree with improvements in the wall/barrier designs. As a first step they might want to close up the width of the track. That might help in preventing a "run" at the wall. Most of these concrete barriers are designed to keep cars in the lanes or roadways & roll them back into the lane if they climb up the barrier. I don't think they were designed for vehicles as low as F/C & Top Fuelers. After striking a traditional metal guard rail during a crash in '99 I'm not too fond of them. Esp. when they are quite a few feet off the track. That allowed my car to "square off" with the rail & make an almost head on hit instead of an angled impact. As most of you engineers know, that didn't do my body any good when all that energy in the car met an immovable object. I was lucky to survive, but with a "Soft Hit' I might not have sustained all the severe injuries. This might be a step forward where our insurance surcharge & oildown fines could be spent. What's the old saying? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. .

Adger Smith

[sg1838]

I'm kinda surprised that someone hasn't mentioned the use of the safer wall barrier system that is used in other bodies of racing.

That's a very good point. I can't say that a safer wall barrier would have saved Eric Medlen, but it certainly wouldn't have hurt. It would seem like it would be very easy to retrofit most dragstrips with the safer barrier, especially since they walls are all completely straight.

That said, I really feel like there's only so much you can do to protect the fuel class drivers. There's only so much punishment a human body can take, and I'm guessing that at 300 mph you're pushing those limits. Quite frankly, I'm surprised a modern-era funny car driver hasn't been killed by flying debris from an engine explosion (ala Darrell Russell from the tire).


Jason Oldfield
S/G & S/ST 1838

[Larry Sullivan]

Adger,

Though you got a pretty good shock hitting a metal guard rail, what you experienced was similar to the effects of the SAFER barrier because steel guard rails give and deform, while concrete forms a rigid barrier. The biggest drawback to steel guard rails - and the reason they are banned at most facilities - is that they not only deformed, they also came apart and the exposed ends turned into lethal weapons.

The SAFER barrier's square metal tubes also deform, but do not turn into knives and spears in the process. However, they are not effective for crashes where the car's momentum is parallel to the wall or nearly so and they tend to either grab the car or have a rebound effect in shallow-impact geometries. On an oval track, in a corner, centrifugal force sends the car into the wall at a greater impact angle and that's what the SAFER walls are designed for.

Bullrings like Bristol have them all the way around the track because the cars are turning almost all the way around the track, but they are not used on the outside walls of the straightaways on larger tracks. They are used on the inner walls of the straightaways where those walls are far enough from the racing surface that the likely impact angle is high enough for the walls to work (for example, on the inside wall in turn four at Daytona).

On dragstrips, most wall impacts are parallel or nearly so, and the SAFER technology not only won't help, it might make those impacts more serious. In other words, the obvious solution isn't necessarily the correct solution and it's going to take a lot of testing and analysis to come up with something better than the rigid walls that are currently the norm at dragstrips. Perhaps the crushable structure needs to be on the race car, not the wall, for example?


- Larry

[david ring]

Perhaps the crushable structure needs to be on the race car, not the wall, for example?


- Larry

Larry may well be onto something. The JFR announcement that they won't be at Houston includes the following statemtent.

"In the near future, JFR will attempt to implement safety measures needed to prevent this type of tragedy from recurring.

According to Force, the team felt the need to address changes in the driver cockpit area but hopes to return to competition April 12-15 for the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway."

[Larry Sullivan]

The wording of the JFR release raises the possibility that impact with the wall may not have been the critical element in this accident - even more reason not to jump to any hasty conclusions about how to prevent this from happening in the future.

- Larry