Black Box

She did a head one into the wall this afternoon looked a little milder. I'm sure she'll be glad this weekend is over.

kurt M

This is why I went with a beer keg like Kirky full containment with the old type see through halo. it is made to be mounted from many points from the halo down to to the floor. 0.0 flex-o-flop as seen in plastic or metal floor mount seats. Jam my butt down in the seat pull the harnesses tight and be asured the seat to harness relationships will remain intact during a hit. I also use a right side net and leg boards to contain my legs in T bone angle hits. Seat is mounted far right to gain distance from the door and door bars.
The fire bottle is mounted pass side foot well near the center tunnel to protect it and the activation cable. Safety pin is easy to see and remove while strapped in. main battery disconect is also easy to pull and reset from drivers seat.

Looks like Danica did things right when things went wrong. I bet that same hit 20 years ago would have come out far worse considering the safety systemsused in the cars and on the tracks of the times.

porrsha

You still have today to sign up and put DANICA on your team.

VaSteve

Those inside wall hits look harder perhaps since we get to wait while the car takes its time getting there. I wonder if they are harder hits than to he outside wall where you are maybe? going faster but are right there net to it. It seems like maybe they should double up the SAFER barrier on the inside walls.

APKhaos

FWIW, Danica spoke at the National Press Club this week. I happened to catch it on CSPAN Friday night.
It was a great talk and she handled herself well. Good insight into the industry and her development path, and made it clear that she is far more self-aware and realistic than she may appear at times [eg in the GoDaddy commercials]. I always thought she was a lightweight, but have to re-calibrate after this.

chris walrod

In the open wheel design criteria, there is to be ample room designed into the monocoque for a driver to be able to pull his/her knees up to pull feet from the pedals. This area is around the damper area, just below.

Like many have said, trained to do one thing, and actually doing it are often times two different things.

mark kibort

not enough sports car racing, because she was tank slapping like a mad woman! it was save-able!

mark kibort

i think you should raise you feet to where your hands are, at least danika should, just to be on the safe side, especially if the cameras are rolling
.

DreamCarrera

How many of you are playing hookie today to watch the Daytona 500?

I'd be willing to bet a lot of businesses in the South will be understaffed today...

Jim Child

No need to take off work. It looks like the weather won't permit a start until late afternoon/early evening. It may even get pushed back until tomorrow.

Flying Finn

Are NASCAR seats "fitted" (molded from driver's body) as the seats in F1 are?

I think (especially for Ovals) they should.

VaSteve

They are to some degree. On the rare chance they have to swap drivers they always talk about swapping the seats. For that kinda money, why not have a custom seat?

If you watch it regularly (I do) different drivers have different type of seats and amount of containment.

Circuit Motorsports

Yep, they all are. Couple different solutions, both are very good. One uses a foam and the other uses little foam beads. Any of the purpose built single driver cars at the top levels are like this. Pretty much every pro open wheeler from the lowest series to the top has them too, the ALMS prototypes, etc and a smattering of the street based cars.

They can be done for about 200 bucks at home with a helper. The good seat fitters charge about 1500 for all the work start to finish including the materials. I've done/sold about 50 kits/seats in the last couple years. It can be done in the composite seats like recaro and racetech too. The key is buying a seat 3 sizes to big and then making the insert.