SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/470914
IMPROVING THE SAFETY FACTOR O Of all the hardware designed to protect a race car driver from potential injury, personal protection in the event of fire on board a race vehicle is a never ending quest to the application of safety, science, and managing heat stress. That's what drives motorsports equipment manufacturers like Simpson Racing, Sparco, Stand 21, Impact Safety and many others, to focus on products that save lives.. Of all the hardware designed to protect a race car driver from potential injury, personal protection ranks highest. The ability to avoid an in-vehicle fire is a never ending quest to the application of safety, science, and managing heat stress. That experience is typically what drives motorsports equipment manufacturers like Simpson Racing, Sparco, Stand 21, Impact Safety and many others, to focus on products that save lives. SCORE-International desert racing rules mandate racing suits and safety protocols that are considered standard across the spectrum of motorsports around the world. Simply put, if you don't have a proper racing suit on, you don't get to be in the vehicle. No one questions that fact, but many safety equipment manufacturers want desert racers not to consider a one-piece overall garment as the only safety precaution. Most want racers and crew to go to the next level, and utilize proper undergarments too, that are primarily designed to additionally protect the driver and co-driver from fire, long enough to get out of the race vehicle without incurring severe skin burns. Fire safety suit manufacturers point out that nothing is truly fireproof. Heat and flame, driven by oxygen, grows hotter and will eventually prevail. With modern safety suits, proper undergarments, driver and co-driver would have less than a minute to get out of a burning vehicle if a flash fire engulfs the cockpit. Fire Suits Are Commonly Used But The Realities Of Fire Should Be Taken Much More Seriously FIRE ON BOARD BY RICK SHANDLEY 074 SCORE JOURNAL