MasTacos
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I've been working T&C at The Mint for a few years now and I always hate having to tell racers that their helmets, restraint systems or firesuits will not pass Tech.
While I can't ever recall anyone arguing against the safety standard. Failing a piece of gear means racers having to walk back up to the vendors and buying an expensive product at the last minute.
To avoid this I figured I'd post a quick overview not just for the new guys but for some veterans out there as a reminder.
Helmets:
The current BITD Rule Book, on page 21, states:
"Helmets must be of approved by one of the following with the appropriate approval decal attached; Snell SA2010 or SAH2010/SA2015."
To find out if your helmet is compliant, look inside, under the fabric (you may have to hunt around for it a bit with older helmets) to find the sticker that you see here:
If the date on that sticker is 2010 or later, you're ok. If it's earlier than 2010, it's going to fail.
HEAD AND NECK RESTRAINTS (I'll call them HANS for ease of writing):
For HANS devices, the current BITD rule book, on page 22, states:
"All head restraints must be replaced or recertified 5 years from month and date of manufacture."
When you look at your HANS device, look for the silver sticker shown below (in some cases, it might be under the fabric of the shoulder piece). The punch-outs will tell you when your device was either manufactured or recertified.
Going forward, SFI is changing the format to make it simpler to determine date of manufacture so you may see this tag instead on newer devices.
FIRE SUITS (graphic picture below):
You've seen the videos, read the warnings and heard the stories about fires. It's the thing that scares us the most when racing and rightly so.
When you strap on a fire suit, whether your in a pit or in the car, you're acknowledging that fire safety is important but, quite often, we fool ourselves into believing that it won't happen to us (anyone done prerunning in tshirts?.... anyone?)
Contrary to popular belief, fire suits will not keep you from being burned, they're there to buy you time (more on that below).
The current BITD rule book, on page 22, states:
"One-piece fire suits are mandatory. Two-piece suits are not permitted. The suits must cover from the neck to the ankles and to the wrists. The suits must not have any holes, rips, and tears or be worn thin. All suits must be manufactured from fire resistant material and shall bear a minimum of an SFI 3.2A/5 or higher Definitions and General Information 22 manufacturer’s certification label."
SFI 3.2A/5 adds more layers of production and buys you a bit more time to get out of the vehicle and away from the car.
Over the past few years, there's always a team that we have to fail because they purchased a go-kart suit. I've also had to fail people for the condition of their suits. If I can see light through your suit it's going to fail and you'll have to buy yourself an early birthday gift.
Somewhere on your suit, you'll see this tag:
PIT GEAR:
I won't go into all the details around pit equipment, it's all in the rulebook on page 18 & 19.
Pit crews are also mandated to be wearing 1 or 2-piece SFI 3.2A/5 fire suits, gloves balaclava and fueler's apron. This is where I see a lot of corners being cut out in the desert. The more experience, well-staffed teams tend to do a better job but smaller teams can also help each other (just ask your neighboring team for help!) to be safe.
This is not a safe fueler's rig (this is is not a staged picture, it was from last year's V2R).
If you see someone getting ready to fuel a car dressed like this, please ask them not to (I gently bullied this young man to hook up with team next to him that had the right gear and things went smoothly).
This is what a fueler's rig should look like (this is mine). I put it together using some of my old racing gear, leather work boots and a two-piece FR suit.
Pit fires can and will happen, if you're not prepared, it's going to happen to you. When it does, expect to be burned. How badly will depend greatly on a couple of things.
1) Your gear
2) Your fire plan (who does what when fueling and who does what if a fire breaks out)
3) How calm you remain when it happens
Fire burns through direct contact and radiant heat. The suit will protect you for a short time from direct contact but radiant heat will burn you. This person (they were in the car) was reportedly exposed to fire (radiant heat) for ~10 seconds and received these heat burns (picture well after but you can see what it does). It happens fast.
Remember, we all have to go back to our regular jobs on Monday after the race.
I know this is long-winded and I thank people for their patience. If you don't do anything else, READ THE BITD RULEBOOK. It may send up saving you some aggravation, time and some $
Be safe, see you at T&C.
While I can't ever recall anyone arguing against the safety standard. Failing a piece of gear means racers having to walk back up to the vendors and buying an expensive product at the last minute.
To avoid this I figured I'd post a quick overview not just for the new guys but for some veterans out there as a reminder.
Helmets:
The current BITD Rule Book, on page 21, states:
"Helmets must be of approved by one of the following with the appropriate approval decal attached; Snell SA2010 or SAH2010/SA2015."
To find out if your helmet is compliant, look inside, under the fabric (you may have to hunt around for it a bit with older helmets) to find the sticker that you see here:
If the date on that sticker is 2010 or later, you're ok. If it's earlier than 2010, it's going to fail.
HEAD AND NECK RESTRAINTS (I'll call them HANS for ease of writing):
For HANS devices, the current BITD rule book, on page 22, states:
"All head restraints must be replaced or recertified 5 years from month and date of manufacture."
When you look at your HANS device, look for the silver sticker shown below (in some cases, it might be under the fabric of the shoulder piece). The punch-outs will tell you when your device was either manufactured or recertified.
Going forward, SFI is changing the format to make it simpler to determine date of manufacture so you may see this tag instead on newer devices.
FIRE SUITS (graphic picture below):
You've seen the videos, read the warnings and heard the stories about fires. It's the thing that scares us the most when racing and rightly so.
When you strap on a fire suit, whether your in a pit or in the car, you're acknowledging that fire safety is important but, quite often, we fool ourselves into believing that it won't happen to us (anyone done prerunning in tshirts?.... anyone?)
Contrary to popular belief, fire suits will not keep you from being burned, they're there to buy you time (more on that below).
The current BITD rule book, on page 22, states:
"One-piece fire suits are mandatory. Two-piece suits are not permitted. The suits must cover from the neck to the ankles and to the wrists. The suits must not have any holes, rips, and tears or be worn thin. All suits must be manufactured from fire resistant material and shall bear a minimum of an SFI 3.2A/5 or higher Definitions and General Information 22 manufacturer’s certification label."
SFI 3.2A/5 adds more layers of production and buys you a bit more time to get out of the vehicle and away from the car.
Over the past few years, there's always a team that we have to fail because they purchased a go-kart suit. I've also had to fail people for the condition of their suits. If I can see light through your suit it's going to fail and you'll have to buy yourself an early birthday gift.
Somewhere on your suit, you'll see this tag:
PIT GEAR:
I won't go into all the details around pit equipment, it's all in the rulebook on page 18 & 19.
Pit crews are also mandated to be wearing 1 or 2-piece SFI 3.2A/5 fire suits, gloves balaclava and fueler's apron. This is where I see a lot of corners being cut out in the desert. The more experience, well-staffed teams tend to do a better job but smaller teams can also help each other (just ask your neighboring team for help!) to be safe.
This is not a safe fueler's rig (this is is not a staged picture, it was from last year's V2R).
If you see someone getting ready to fuel a car dressed like this, please ask them not to (I gently bullied this young man to hook up with team next to him that had the right gear and things went smoothly).
This is what a fueler's rig should look like (this is mine). I put it together using some of my old racing gear, leather work boots and a two-piece FR suit.
Pit fires can and will happen, if you're not prepared, it's going to happen to you. When it does, expect to be burned. How badly will depend greatly on a couple of things.
1) Your gear
2) Your fire plan (who does what when fueling and who does what if a fire breaks out)
3) How calm you remain when it happens
Fire burns through direct contact and radiant heat. The suit will protect you for a short time from direct contact but radiant heat will burn you. This person (they were in the car) was reportedly exposed to fire (radiant heat) for ~10 seconds and received these heat burns (picture well after but you can see what it does). It happens fast.
Remember, we all have to go back to our regular jobs on Monday after the race.
I know this is long-winded and I thank people for their patience. If you don't do anything else, READ THE BITD RULEBOOK. It may send up saving you some aggravation, time and some $
Be safe, see you at T&C.
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