SundayDriver

This topic got lost in the CGT thread, so I thought I would split it out. This is not about whether it is inherently safe to drive on a track or not, so let's try not to go there in this thread. Here is the question and point:

When we go out on a track, we 'expect' that someone has looked at the safety of the track, given today's knowledge and some tradeoffs for costs (all tracks can not afford current F1 level safety). Who is it that you THINK has looked at the track and deemed it OK for the event you are about to run?

I know what SCCA does. What does PCA do for club racing? What does anyone do for DE's?

Veloce Raptor

Douchebag ambulance chasers cut from the John Edwards cloth will ruin this sport.

gbaker

^+1

Larry Herman

There are plenty of neocon ambulance chasers out there. Don't take this thread in that direction.

I think that Mark raises an excellent question. How adept is the track chair and CI at saying what is and isn't safe? So far, it seems that the tracks that Nascar runs at take safety very seriously. I see a proliferation of paved runoff areas and a move back of guardrails and catch fences.

gbaker

But seriously, one would hope that a registered professional civil engineer had, as some point, reviewed the design for basic soundness. On the common sense side, one would hope the event organizers had at least made a cursory check for obvious problems.

In the end, I'm doing a recon lap. The buck stops here.

Veloce Raptor

Haha! Larry, you're so easy....

mark kibort

maybe Joey hand should sue limeRock for that ski-jump over the service road just off track on the fastest straight! (did you guys see the BMW front flip?)
that was also an obviously dangerous, and easily fixed issue with that track
mk

Veloce Raptor

Mid Ohio

magnetic1

That wasnt Lime Rock

I agree with O.P. though... who and what determines the level of saftey??

cooleyjb

Just had an event at Milwaukee Mile that was cancelled because of new construction that the track had started the previous day posed a very serious danger to anyone going off course.

Outside of that there are parts of courses that I find "scary" in some ways, however it is my choice how fast and hard I drive through there. Places that come to mind are "the kink", the last turn at Road Atlanta (at least from what I've seen in videos), etc.

That being said, I know where the pucker turns are on tracks and I work my way up to the corner or up to my comfort level for that corner. It's that darn personal responsibility that I have.

Larry Herman

Ahh, you just know where some of my buttons are.

Veloce Raptor

I know, just tweaking you.

Tom W

When I go out, I expect that the organizers and the track have already decided it's safe. In situations like rain or oiled tracks, I decide if staying out is worth the (added) risk. I know that NASA has objected so some configurations at Reno-Fernley as not appropriate and we ran a shorter track configuration because of it.

At the main tracks out here (Laguna Seca, Infineon, or Thunderhill) not much changes (unless it's ongoing improvements) so it's not much concern to me. With regard to the issue in the CGT crash, we ran at Infineon a few weeks back and I think it was the week after the IRL race there. The barriers had been returned to their normal positions before we got there.

Larry Herman

To think that there are "safe" places on a race track is self-deluding. There are places that are less dangerous than others, but when running at speed anything can happen. As long as there are objects close enough to hit, they are going to get hit. The best you can do is to make sure that there is nothing needlessly dangerous, like a barrier tangent to the track just after trackout, or the end of a guardrail just begging to be hit. In the end, you have to make a personal decision whether or not it is safe enough for you to run hard, and where you choose to back off because the ramifications are greater than you can accept.

RSRRacer

Lets sum it up like this.

If your body is inside a machine that goes over 100 mph, and there is the potential to have 100 mph reduced to zero or near zero in a matter of a few feet, well, its dangerous!