How safe are you at night in the pits!
Being safe "on" the racetrack shouldn't be your only concern...
When you go racing, your car must pass tech before you can make a pass on the track. The tech inspection is done for our safety, and to make sure rules and regulations are followed. It is easy to see that organizations like NHRA and IHRA take their safety very seriously. Not only for the drivers and teams, but for the spectators as well. Take the NHRA for example, they have so many officials that if you park in the wrong place you will be getting a knock on your door. The "parking police" are a great group of people and they do their job well. But what happens when all of these officials go to dinner and then to their motels? Who is there to deal with safety issues and emergencies? There are guards inside the fence who do a good job (to the level of their training). Are these officials (guards) trained in CPR, FIRST AID, BASIC LIFE SUPPORT, ADVANCED LIFE SUPPORT, or FIRE FIGHTING? Probably not and that can cost a life if you have an incident in the middle of the night! Most drag strips are located just outside of town in the "corn belt." Most fire stations are located in the middle of town. Sometimes the difference between the two can be five to ten miles or more. Many of these fire departments are staffed by volunteers and are not staffed twenty-four hours a day. That means these folks must respond to the station, get the equipment, and then respond to your emergency! That could easily take twenty to thirty minutes, if you’re lucky! If you're not breathing, permanent brain damage can occur within four to six minutes. All racers know the value of a second, a tenth, a hundredth, and even a thousandth. We know about giving up the finish line and driving home thirteen hours for one or two thousandths. It's the same in emergency situations. When someone dies in a fire, there is a time frame of one or two thousandths of a second where that person will either live or die! I do not know why we have not had a major fire in the pits at a multi day event. We live in motor homes, trailers, tents, and other strange living quarters. These rigs are so big, and parked within twelve to fifteen feet of each other. If one rig was to catch fire in the middle of the night, it could easily take the entire row. Radiant heat is the method of heat transfer that would heat the exposure (your rig) to its ignition temperature. At that time it would become part of the fire and that could take as little as five minutes. The bigger the fire becomes, the faster it spreads. After the 911 call is received, it could be twenty minutes before help arrives. When you place the 911 call you must "paint a picture" for the call taker. This ensures the proper complement of equipment will roll on the call. EXAMPLE #1: "There’s a trailer on fire at the speedway!" The call taker probably thinks it’s a utility trailer -- they don't know the nationals are in town, so they send one engine. Flowing a normal sized hand line, the engine will be out of water in about five minutes! That will put out only about half of the first trailer on fire. EXAMPLE #2: "There is a fire at (give the name of the track). The fire is in a trailer. There are other trailers and motor homes within fifteen feet. There are people in the motor homes sleeping." Now the fire dispatcher can start a full assignment and EMS. The most you could do is alert everyone to the fire. There are a few things that could be done to minimize damage to persons and property. As always, education is the key to success in this area. Handout material and/or a column in one of our papers or magazines would help. Many of our racers possess skills that could be called upon when needed. They could park the rigs of racers with skills in EMS, FIRE, and POLICE at the end of a row. The trailers could be marked or flagged to identify help. This way, help could be on site for early intervention. Early intervention is key in the mitigation of emergency situations. Another thing I would like to see is a liaison with the local fire departments. This would bring important issues to light for racers, officials, and fire officials -- things like maps of the racetrack layout, hydrant location, fuel storage, parking layout, means of egress, etc. Racing safety after hours part 2 In the interest of safety while at any event where trailers, motorhomes etc. are parked together over night, I would like to offer a few points for consideration . These are a few simple actions that could provide a more favorable outcome in the event of a emergency. Event pre-planing for specific situations ie. fires (fuel, structure, brush/trash, motorhomes, trailers, auto etc.), medical emergencys (heart attack, stroke, diabetes, etc.), trauma (open and closed injuries, fractures, blood showing, etc) and then training the event staff on procedures and/or tactics to mitigate the emergency. At the very least begin operations and request additional resources as needed and provide onscene information to incoming units. A chain of command for track or event operations is probably already in place. The chain of command should be different for emergency situations, with a span of control of 5-7 persons per group leader/officer/supervisor. An event liason person should be in place to interface with local Fire/Police/EMS officals. They would coordinate planning (site layout/grounds, location of water sources, EMS and Firefighting equitment and supplies etc.), assignments (who does what) and training (this is how you do it). The problem with all of this, is that the people I just talked about are not available "Right Now" if your situation happens at night! Now I'm sure anyone around would come running to help. But, it would be nice if one of those running actually knew what to do (first aid, CPR, use of the extinguisher etc.) or the correct action to take (go in and get them out, alert and evacuate etc.). Chances are that some of the events participants have such training, and could and should be used to take immediate life saving actions when needed. You may not get a second chance! Event applications should have an area that would identify an individuals abilities in Fire,Police,EMS incidents. These folks should be parked in strategic areas on the grounds ie. (end of the row). And identified with a small marking on the trailer for rapid intervention when needed. Track personnel and/or event participants could gather these folks in the event of an emergency (during off hours at night, MCI mass casualty incidents,etc.). Medical emergencies happen regularly, but my biggest fear is a fire in a rig (motorhome and/or trailer at night)! The rigs are parked so close together and they are so big. They need to be parked at a 45 degree angle instead of straight in. It would be so much easier to move other rigs in danger out of their spot and away if a fire were to breakout. This would contain the fire to the area of origin (one rig). Parking them straight in and that close together will cause them to become a part of the fire by way of the "radiant heat transfer". Well, I think that's it for now folks. There will be a part three, stand by! Wade Mahaffey |
Re: How safe are you at night in the pits!
Not that it means a hill of beans,but I was a CPR instructor for 15 years when I worked for Con Edison.If anyone in Div 1 has a problem and I'm there bang on the door of my trailer, I might be able to help.
While I was still working one of my co workers aided someone having a heart attack.He revived him but unfortunately didn't survive at the hospital. I did have better results after retirement.Me and my wife were in a restaurant when an older man was choking on food.Surprisingly everyone stood around with their finger up their *****.I gave the poor guy the Heimlich Maneuver and dislodged the food.Anyone at the track wants to know how to help someone stop by. |
Re: How safe are you at night in the pits!
Ed, I knew there was a reason I ussualy parked near you I just didn't know what it was. Hope all is well,Lee.
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Re: How safe are you at night in the pits!
We all see the local cops rubbernecking in the pits but have you ever seen the local fire dept driving in the pits, maybe they just need to be asked, would the track gods let them in to look for free I do not think so. How big is your fire extinguisher, face it that 10lb will not cut it on a major fire but a 20lb might buy you a little more time untill bigger stuff shows up. Myself I am a 25 year vet to my local fire dept and have almost have that many years as a EMT and hope nobody needs my help at the races. God bless to all the others out there and have a safe day. Tom
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The guy choking was so disgusted he gaked up the piece of chicken and said "My GOD thats disgusting !!!" You smiled and said to your friends, "See I told you that Hindlicker manuver works every time" :eek: (Sorry if that was "Too Much" that was one of my Grandfathers favorite jokes ?) Cheers Chris :D:D:D |
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I've had the misfortune of dealing with two fires at the races, both at WDRS (LODRS predecessor) events. One was a good friend and fellow S/G racer, during the day (after our last qualifying pass on Saturday afternoon). He was changing carb jets and spilled gas onto his headers which ignited, catching him and the car on fire. He was worried about the car and trying to put it out. I was able to help put the main fire out, but had a hard time getting more help when my extinguisher was exhausted and the grass was still burning (someone eventually showed up with a big agricultural sprayer with water).
The other occasion was much worse. It was late at night (this was in the early 90's when few people stayed at the track). I was there late along with my friend Steve Federlin, as we were both working on our cars (and pitted close together). We heard a big boom and saw the flash of an explosion from the top alcohol pits. It was at Jay Payne's trailer (back when he was driving TAD), and a crew member had apparently knocked over a drop light into a puddle of fuel, which ignited and caused the fuel cell to blow. By the time Steve and I got there (running with our large fire extinguishers), the side of the trailer was engulfed as well. We managed to put it out with handheld fire extinguishers. Every time I exhausted an extinguisher I looked back at the crowd (who was smart enough to stand back from the flames, unlike me and Steve ;) ), and someone tossed me a fresh extinguisher. Apparently they were grabbing every extinguisher they could find, even those from unlocked but unattended trailers. When we had the fire out, Steve pointed at what I was wearing (an old pair of oil-soaked sweats, from working on the car) and said "are you nuts?". Only then did I realize he was wearing his SFI/5 firesuit (just like mine that was sitting in my truck). We also learned that the inside wall of the trailer wall on fire was line with fuel jugs, so it would have been ugly if it had made it inside the trailer. Jay was extremely grateful, and held a big pizza party in our honor the next night (ironically, Steve and I were both too busy working on our cars still to make it over there until the end). They managed to re-wire and re-plumb the race car and won the race. I guess the moral of the story is to stop and think a moment, possibly use your racing firesuit for protection if fighting a fire in the pits. And ask more questions while trying to put out a fire (like if there are fuel jugs nearby that you cannot see). I had received basic fire suppression training at work, but those were items they did not cover. |
Re: How safe are you at night in the pits!
I realize what this forum is about, and I know the mind set of the readers is about going fast. I also know that racers normally have very good common sense. The problem is that common sense is not enough in life threatning situations. It takes knowledge, experience, and training to win, just like racing. If you take the average racer and put him/her in a stressful emergency situation, it would be like taking someone from the grandstands and puting them in your car on race day! Sure they could win, (opponent red light, mechanical issue, break out, etc) but I don't like my chances. I'm not saying, lets start training all racers in emergency procedures. My point is that race officals need to be aware of the lack of protection, when the protection has gone home for the day. If you have ever had a need for emergency assistance, it seems like it takes along time. If you're out in the country at a race track, it will take a longggggg time! Would that be acceptable if it was your mama that needed help! Like I said, there are many folks like Mr. Fernandaz that have skills and could be called upon. But I guarrentee you there are people who have parked right next to Ed and have no idea.
Here's a senario for ya: Joe Quick is racing at the nationals. He brought is 10 year old son, and his neighbor (Bill)who helps him around the garage. Joe's car has been acting up all day, causing bill to run back and forth to the trailer for tools/parts etc. They get back to the trailer (after winning 3rd round and going to the show on sunday) now it's time to celebrate with Uncle Buck and George Donhauser (in other words eat real good!, drink, and smoke them big ones). Now bill has just takin his insulin shot for (Diabetes) because he knows he's getting ready to eat. It starts to rain a little (Div 1), so Joe and Bill hustle up to get the car put away in the trailer and button up around the pit area. First of all, Bill has been running all day, his body using more sugar than usual. Now he has injected himself with Insulin to use even more sugar. Now you have the recipe for disaster! Bill tells Joe to go ahead to Georges without him, he's gonna rest a while (Bills sugar, now dangerously low is affecting his ability to function/reason and he forgets to eat at all! Bill will soon be unconcious and this will be life threatning) After dark Joe's son finds Bill lying on the floor in the motor home. He cannot wake Bill, he is scared and starts running through the pits looking for an offical for help.(their all on the gates). It would have been nice for the child to have known of a marker on John Racers trailer next door , identifying him as a racer with emergency skills. Now John can do a quick assesment and maybe find a medical braclett or necklace with Diabetic markings. Now he can call 911 and provide some good information on the patient. While waiting for rescue, John interviews Joe and learns of probable low blood sugar situation. Now john can rub a little mashed up sugar paste type substance (candy bar, cake icing) between the cheek and gum to provide some sugar for Bill's body while waiting for rescue to arrive. He my very well have just saved Bill's life right there! All because of "EARLY INTERVENTION" and just a little planning from the racing community. Thank you Wade Mahaffey |
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Wade,
Good post and I all for the special idenifacation of those folks that are trained in medical or other safey talents. When people are pitted the fire risk is at one level............but the one thing that has always made me nervous was the stacking at national events. I say Joliet is probly the safest, but the US Nats has to be the most dangerous. Just one fire in the middle of the 10 rows of rigs. ????? total loss of..... And what about a medical emergency.............a cell phone call from a person in their MH and what do you tell the 911 folks. ? I'm rig # 225, or the 32nd rig in the 6th row but the purple trailer........... No! I don't know the correct senario but what Wade is sugesting in spot on ! Thanks Wade. Rick Bailey |
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Drooze,are you sniffing the C-12 fumes again?????????????????? |
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something that always scared me is locking the gate after dark, with medical condition myself i always tell my neighbor what is up with me.
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Another thing is medical alerts.I'm guilty of not wearing a med alert.Used to wear a bracelet when I raced with a penicillen allergy warning.I will now,after reading this thread pick one up.
I would imagine someone is at the gates,locked or not at nationals.Correct me if I'm wrong.Maybe the SRAC guys can push for some safety considerations for overnight med security with the tracks.If so don't be surprised if they tack on an entry surcharge though. |
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I was concerned about being locked in at a track last year. But after some inquiring I found out that the lock on the gate was a combination lock that police and fire had the combination to.
I believe most emergency services are prepared for incidents at a public venue. When I worked for the Staten Island Ferry every 6 months or so the local fire department would come down to familiarize the newer guys with the below decks spaces. And coordinate the "what ifs". As in if there was an engine room fire they learned not to do anything till they talked to both the master and the chief engineer. If we had a bad below decks fire. We would simply shut the ventilation off and pull the CO2 system flooding the spaces with CO2 and removing the oxygen. You don't need a bunch of firemen. down there, if their Scottpack failed they would never make it out. No mater how good they were at eating smoke. |
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Please respect what Wade is saying. I have known him for 30 years. He is an accomplished fabricator, an avid drag racer at both the national level as well as the local scene, and is now a retired firefighter from one of the nation's busyest county's. He has vast Haz-Mat experince. He knows of what he is talking about.
In addition to what Wade was saying, when was the last time you saw a race car trailer with the Haz-Mat placard or a helmet with your blood type. There are a lot of things that we can each do to help ourselves. Most of us take things for granted, including myself. I used to always ride around what ever track that I was at just to see where everything was(mostly the snack bar and restrooms), but really to see the shut down area, ambalance, firetruck if any, etc.. Again, now I probably take it for granted. |
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As a retired 33 year veteran Firefighter/ paramedic I applaud you for starting this thread on pit safety! Many of our fellow racers are or were firefighters, EMT's or Paramedics and carry first aid equipment, I know I do. If you have a medical emergency dial 911 and then seek assistance from your racer buddies who no doubt will now that there is an EMT or Medic a few trailers down from you. Notify one of your sanctioning (NHRA, IHRA etc.) officials who can use their radio and guide the responding agency to your location. Take a basic first aid class yourself, I promise you when (not if) it is time for you to act in an emergency you will be glad you did! Last but not least, DO NOT FREAK OUT! Stay calm. You will only make the situation worse by running around screaming "Oh boy, oh boy!". Have a plan!!!! Be safe. Jim
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Great post---Also along these lines EVERY racer should have their blood type and if any allergies or if you are diabetic etc on the back of your helmet maybe put it on with a dymo tape or a label maker nothing real big but something so that EMT/ track rescue personell know what to maybe treat/not treat you for. SCCA and motorcycle racing associations do this. We should too. I have it on my helmet!!! comp 387
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Thanks fellows, This thread is for our safety and is each of ours responsibility. I have heard some very good stories/comments of real experiences, and that is what I was looking for. I would like to see more folks share situations and/or safety tips with us, for we can all learn something. I would like to comment on the trailer fire mentioned by Mr. Pliska. It is a bad feeling when you find your battery is junk in the lanes, and the charger is at the trailer. It's a horrific feeling when there's a fire, and nothing to fight it with.
We as racers should try to standardize the location of our extingushers. In the fire department, we told folks to mount them by the door. That way you could get to them as you retreat toward safety. I like my extingushers (2) 2-1/2 gal. water and (1) 20 lb Dry Chemical mounted on the side door where most folks have there folding counter/oil rack. If you place your mount so that it will slide in resting in the footwell as you close the door it will take the weight off of the door hindge. The best reason for the door mount is "accessibility right now"! Also if there is ever an incident while towing (or parked), as you open the door you are shielded from any fire conditions and as you fold the door back, there they are at the ready! Also I do not lock the trailer doors while in transit. (It's tough to steel anything the way I roll anyway LOL) If you need to get in, or get the car out in a hurry theres no time to be fumbleing with keys. NOTE: Those presurized water cans are sweet when removing that D1 mud form your baby. (DON'T FORGET TO RECHARGE THAT CAN !) Exellent point by FED387 The fire department has availible to them a MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) book located in any property housing Hazardous Materials. This information is paramount to the success of firefighters handling the emergency. The same could be done for medical and contact information for a racer. There could be a common place (ie on the wall just inside the trailer door) and in the event of an incident, an offical could be dispatched there for the info. The only problem with having the info on your person, is that it could be compromised/damaged as part of the incident (fire, trama, disguarded etc) and the EDI (Emergency Driver Information) (I just thougth that one up, lol) would contain much more detailed information for Medical personnel. Wade Mahaffey |
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Hello guys and gals,
I have been reading these forums for quite some time now, and I would like to to thank you all, from an "outsider" for a very entertaining and informative platform for great racing information. Although I have never gone down the track, I have spent quite a few nights at tracks serving as a crew member on a friends cars, so this is really a good wake up call topic. I would like to share a story that we witnessed in Baytown, Tx. a few years ago. One of Larry Dixon's hospitality trailers caught fire during final eliminations on Sunday. Anyone who has been to Baytown before the new road was opened off of I-10 knows that there is only one two laned road (FM-565) in and out. We watched from the stands, and the trailer started to burn slowly, and got worse and worse. The major problem was there was NO fire fighting equipment at the track (the safety safari tried) capable of handling that type of fire. By the time a fire truck got through the traffic and to the pits, the trailer was history. Needless to say, from what I understand, Mr. Dixon was less than happy. I tried to attached a picture I took, hope it worked. This took place during the day, with people around. Thanks for allowing me to post, and keep up the great work. Hope to see some of you in Belle Rose! |
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RIGHT ON WADE!!! Lord konws a lot of us arn't 23 anymore. Health concerns that come with age, and the heat of .the race day action could cause major problems at any time,be it day or night. You have some great sugestions I hope NHRA and the rest take your thougths to heart and do something about this soon.
RACE SAFE JACK ARNEW |
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[QUOTE=art leong;169160]I was concerned about being locked in at a track last year. But after some inquiring I found out that the lock on the gate was a combination lock that police and fire had the combination to.
I believe most emergency services are prepared for incidents at a public venue. Art, from personal experience this couldn't be further from the truth. |
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Great thread on safety and valuable inputs posted.
Be safe anytime, use JACK STANDS AT ALL TIMES.... |
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Wade this has always been a concern and should be. There are a lot of factors that can go wrong.
If you are asking the tracks to step up and have additional professional people to be on duty through the night they will now start to charge us for these additional services and to stay in our motorhomes throughout the event. We used to pay to stay at New England Dragway and I think this issue was tossed around at Maple Grove. But I think the writing is on the wall and sooner or later we will have to pay for the convenience of staying at the track. |
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dottie on the west coast in div. 6 we already pay to stay at the track.
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Great post. We are our own best source of help at night. As stated Fire extinguishers for our own use and use on the road if needed are "required". It is great to realize others are EMTs, etc and that can be our best safety net until outside help. Tags for allergies , Diabetics etc are just plain good sense. As stated "calm" helps.... Just as you carry tools for almost any need, carry your own medicines for most possible personal needs and educate your family and children on basics as we all need growing up and it helps.
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The point I am trying to make is, that there are steps/actions that all of us can take to minimize the chance of a serious incident. Education and/or the past experience from others on this thread cost us "0". If we do not take advantage of this and become proactive and progressive then it will end up costing us all more money. In the same way that auto accidents from cell phone usage, substance abuse, theft etc do affect/increase your premium! In retirement, I have a twenty-five year career as a Professional Firefighter/EMT in Fairfax County, Virginia behind me now. Our department is progressive, very highly trained, and known AROUND THE WORLD. You have seen us on CNN many times. I have been around the block more than a few times myself, and have seen the unthinkable. I am simply trying to bring about awareness so that it does'nt happen to you! On the job we would go into the schools and teach fire safety to the children during October (fire prevention month). We would provide handout material with fire safety for kids as well as parents. We were among the first departments in the country to hand out free smoke detectors, and now look at what they have done to save lives and property.
That's foward thinking, progressive acting, incident preventing, life saving! All it takes is a piece of paper handout when you come thru the gate, or at tech with some safety tips on it. As well as information on the location of EMS/Firefighters on duty personnel stationed on the grounds, and off site local department, Law enforcement and any track/show officals. Just a few notes that would provide immediate action/direction in the event of an emergency incident. This would help to prevent, reduce, resolve and/or mitigate an event that otherwise could be devastating and possibly cost the track/grounds/association money. (which will cost us money in the long run) That sounds a lot better to me than a safety charge on my entry! I would certianly think race track owners/officals would be willing to look at some of my ideas to reduce incident potential. These things will save us all money, and for some........heartache ! Wade Mahaffey |
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Wade: I have a concern that goes right along with your post. I've often wondered what would we do in case of a Tornado bearing down on the Race Track / Pits? Besides assuming the position and kissing our ***** good bye what would the correct action be? JB
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What would you do if you were at home? The same rules apply. Don't try to save all of your stuff. If you try to drive away, are you driving in the right direction or into more danger, DO NOT lock yourself in your trailer or motorhome. Find a low lying drainage ditch and lie flay until it passes. Fortunately with a tornado you don't have to wait long for it to move away.
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wow! Jim that deserves a thread all to itself. If you followed me, you would be heading underground somewhere ie tunnel, drainage pipe etc. You could truly what-if this thing to death. If it was a twister in the daytime that I could see comming, I would try to determine/project the path of travel. Then I would steal the closest pit bike and HAUL ***!!! I do have moto-cross skills!
I have no experience and/or training in this matter. That senario could be a disaster at the track or anywhere else. The thread here is about preventing and mitigating events and/or situations. I would be extremely rich if I could prevent a storm. Also I wanted to add that we narrowly missed a MCI (Mass Casualty Incident) in Pheonix last weekend by a few feet either way. If that tire would have made it's way into the stands, racers with EMS skills would have been pressed into action as well as some regular Joes. It would have taxed even the great Fire & Rescue Department of Pheonix. The heart attack save in the pits in Gainsville last weekend had a positive outcome, only because it happend on day shift. If it would have happened at night with any delay...... Wade Mahaffey |
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Wade, I get it ....but my point is, you're in your motorhome with 600 other racers... sleeping ... the races have been called because of weather. The hail wakes you up .... It gets calm ... then,,, the big train is coming !!!!... What do you do?... It's dark, all hell's breakin' lose and you and 600 other racers are looking for cover ? or do you get under the bed and hang on???... I don't know.... I know all about what to do in my home or out in the open. And I really don't like the idea of diving in a water filled ditch in Gainesville, Georgia, or Louisiana. I was just asking for suggestions or ideas.
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Jim, you don't give me much to work with in that senario. But I was in a situation once while at a race by myself. A pretty bad storm had blown up and I had planned that if it got much worse, I was going to suit up with helmet and strap in the racecar which was strapped down in the trailer with my living quarters. I would close the propane valve on the motorhome and disconnect all power and put any gas can outside the trailer . Lock down all equitmment in the trailer as if going on the road. You can't get much safer than being strapped in that car and inside the trailer with no windows! Be sure to tell your neighbors (several) that you'll be inside the trailer! Hope this helps Jim,
Wade Mahaffey |
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