Originally Posted by
ERC
When were the races though? Some of what appears on TV can be months old. Scrutineers can't check every car as it goes out on track.
How many people in anyone's memory have been at a track when fire has caused any injury? Anyone?
The last but one injury I can remember, a few years ago now, was an Alfa Sud at Pukekohe, where the driver suffered a broken arm - from the fire extinguisher, in the days before they were metal holders, when it broke loose and the plastic holder wasn't up to it.
The old 80/20 rule now applies to motorsport, as the greatest gains were made after 1950's, with hard hats, then treated Proban race suits, seat belts, then roll over protection and fire extinguishers and double and triple layer suits. All this up to maybe the 1990's?
All we have had since then has been some form of head and neck restraint.
Motorsport is Dangerous. Always has been, but it is a lot less dangerous now and we have exceeded the 80/20 rule and are now on the law of diminishing returns.
A double layer suit with cotton underwear gives a maximum of 30 seconds protection in the event of a fuel soaked driver catching fire.
May I suggest that the thousands HD are raking in on a spurious H & S charge would be better spent on ensuring a trapped driver can be reached by a fully equipped fire tender in a fair bit less than 30 seconds, because equipping a single manned marshal's post with just 1 extinguisher, which would NOT knock out a serious fire, and extinguish it, just doesn't cut it.
We are in the difficult situation of safety directives not now being related to the actual risks. There are other influences and I don't think that they are 100% safety related.
There has to be an entry level for the sport and there were many critics of the 2K Cup series, claiming that it would be carnage. Were they right or wrong? I haven't been to many meetings for 2K Cup competitors, but I'm willing to bet there have been fewer accidents and damage per car laps, than F5000 and even Historic Muscle Cars/Historic Saloons... Prove me wrong!
Number of injuries - fire related across all categories/laps driven over the last 15 years? Anyone?