Just remember to take a deep breath BEFORE you hit the fire button.

 

Help me understand something with respect to the hand held extinguishers.

I was taught that on a hot track the only time you get out of a car after an incident or mechanical problem is if you think it is on fire. Then once out of the car you were to seek shelter over the tire wall, guard rail, what ever....out of harms way. Other than initiating the onboard fire suppression, is it correct to hang around and attempt further fire fighting duties with the hand held or seek shelter??

 

Cars don't just blow up like in the movies. Often the fire will be from under the car in dry grass or from hot brakes flaming up from the sudden lack of cooling. You should be safe.

Hopefully some corner worker will get there with a fire extinguisher to help out and not run for shelter.

 

I think the point was not that the car was going to explode, just keeping yourself safe while other cars were still on a hot track at speed, in your proximity.

 

Oh....and I have experienced setting the dry grass on fire before. Car was still semi mobile and able to motor out of harms way. Had a good vantage point to view the extinguishing efforts by the crew.

 

Ok, Dave I have got to see that this year at RA!!

 

If possible come to a full stop before hitting the trigger on a installed system. Wind can reduce the effective value of the system.

+1 in see if you can get to a handheld. While working a gird tech I found a hand held that was mounted to a roll bar with 2 band clamps. They were around the bottle not just the base mount.

 

Also be mindful of where you mount a handheld, I often see bottles mounted on roll bars and think to myself in a hard hit that is going to be a projectile and break a hand, same with the tuner kids that mount them on the A-pillar but they dont have helmets on.

One of the spec Miata guys down here in the SE has a dual bottle system, you can pull on that goes to the fuel rail and trunk, another one for the driver. He also practices blind exits after many sessions, Last time I saw he was down to 12 seconds with a Nascar halo seat.

this thread has inspired me to do more work with blind exits for my drivers.

 

Don't expect that the workers know what they're doing, especially if they're volunteers at a DE. I've been on fire and you need to take charge.
I'm installing a system for next year, and now I'm also going to keep the floor mounted extinguisher, for possible grass fires.
Make sure anything you have is well secured. Does anyone remember Patrick Jacquemart? Head of Renault racing years ago, had a simple spin in an R5 and was killed by someting, I think an extinguisher, that struck his helmeted head.

 

Something I do is to create stress on my body prior to practicing:

Panic and the associated stress are two issues that need to be managed. It is amazing how long 10-15 seconds is. A simple way to place your body in stress is to do 30 fast push-ups then hold a plank position for 1-min. That gets the heart pumping. Then jump in your car buckle up (will all your normal gear) fast more heart pumping. Once buckled up use a count-down timer for 10-seconds and simply hold your breath, you're going to have to do it in a fire anyways, it will seem like an eternity with your elevated HR

Repeat body stress exercise then understanding exactily how long 10-seconds is calmly trigger fire suppression (simulate move) unbuckle (eyes closed as stated above) and leave the car. Unless you are formally trained on putting out fires I would allow the system or corner workers to do their thing. Burns are very nasty both treatment and recovery. If you really want to juice the exercise find some strobe lights and set off some sort of alarm (more senses more stress) other elements could be added if desired.

Great question one I had not seen before.

 

Y'all remember this?


Dale Earnhardt Jr. ALMS fire

 

Very scary stuff indeed and underscores the need for training. I have seen 3 fireballs at "its only a DE" 2-944's and 1-viper. One of the cars was a meltdown because the safety pin was NOT removed from the manual pull handle when the car was on track. I may get chuckled at but I always wear my bunny suit and as my wife so politely pointed out "wouldnt you feel like a complete dumb-a@@ if your car was on fire and you had a perfectly good drivers suit in your trailer".

OK car is loaded and I am off to PBIR, cheers

 

Yes. Getting out under calm controlled circumstances is one thing. Doing it while dazed and confused is quite another. The best way to maximize your chances to repeat until it's automatic. I've never seen anyone practice egress at a race or a DE. One hopes people are doing it at home.

 

I think I would scare people if I "practiced' at the track, I like to include other elements.....

Hope you have a great weekend I forgot are you attending winterfest?

 

Have fun! See you at Daytona.