No! However I'm surprised it's taken so long for this to come up. NASCAR has required this for along time up on the starting grid and in the pit box. NHRA seems to like to follow NASCAR's lead-makes sense it's safer and someone can makelots of money selling helmets to all the crew members all over the U.S. and maybe the world $$I heard from some crew members of an alcohol crew in Pomona that NHRA is considering mandating Helmets for all crew members on the starting line! Anybody else hear this?
To quote Dale Earnhardt...............
What they need is some karosene soaked rags tied around they're ankles, so the fire ants can't crawl up the backs of they're legs and bite they're candyasses .
I can't find anything about this on any of the usual forums. Any idea who it was or any links?Some clown doing the "matador" thing (guiding the car for the burnout) at the big "lights out" race in Georgia today got run over by the car... Ugh...
Don't forget about the beer drinkers in the stands that keep falling down the stairs. I bet the guy they carried off on a strecher on Sun at Pomona wished he would have had one on.At some point in the very near future everyone in the pits that's driving, riding or just a passenger will be required to wear helmets. Insurance will also have to be provided by all raceteams that intend to use a pit bike, quad, golf cart or other mode of fun at the races.
We live in a "I'm going to sue because I did something stupid, so someone else must be responsible for my stupidity" world.
At some point in the very near future everyone in the pits that's driving, riding or just a passenger will be required to wear helmets. Insurance will also have to be provided by all raceteams that intend to use a pit bike, quad, golf cart or other mode of fun at the races.
We live in a "I'm going to sue because I did something stupid, so someone else must be responsible for my stupidity" world.
I can't find anything about this on any of the usual forums. Any idea who it was or any links?
No problem. Sounds like stupidity either way. I'm waiting to read news articles after a bunch of clowns at a small tire race are mowed down in the starting line area after a car goes out of control and comes at them.I apologize, as can so often happen, it was initially mis-reported on one of the forums and later clarified. Here is what I understand now happened:
This person was brushed by the car while doing the "matador" and laughed it off. That was the source of the initial report. However, the real incident followed when the car stalled after backing up. He opened the door to assist the driver in the restart. The car's neutral safety switch was either inoperable or non-existent and the car lurched in reverse on the attempt to restart it. Since was standing in the open door, he got plowed to the ground. Apparently he was OK, or as was reported "had no injuries a couple of beers wouldn't fix".
Again, I apologize for reporting before I had all the facts.
No problem. Sounds like stupidity either way. I'm waiting to read news articles after a bunch of clowns at a small tire race are mowed down in the starting line area after a car goes out of control and comes at them.
I was in the stands years ago when a FC was backing up and the throttle hung. If folks would have been standing behind the starting line like they do today it wouldn't have been pretty. I wouldn't have a problem with helmets or restricting starting line access.Dale E was steadfast in his refusal to wear a HANS. Which if worn, would probably have saved his life.
Wasn't it just a few years a go a car did somehow come back up track to the starting line and hit and kill someone, the drivers son IIRC, at a private test?
Around that same time, maybe it was at Indy, a funny car throttle inadvertently "whacked" when the team lifted the body and the car lurched, one crew member was thrown into the air, and was lucky to get out of the adventure with a broken tooth?
Didn't a pro crew member lose a leg due to a 4 wheeler accident in the pits?
Easy to complain about stupidity and people not taking responsibility or looking to cash in on injury either accidental or devised, but humans do make mistakes (part of the entire deal) and the devices they build fail or misbehave unexpectedly sometimes with violent consequences.
What's the risk tolerance? Over time, it's dropped lower and lower. Maybe it isn't a 'shirt sleeve' environment out there anymore.