Why are open face helmets even legal anymore for racing? If we are concerned with fire, and we must be based on suit requirements, shouldn't we be required to wear full face helmets and balaclavas?

 

dumb to allow them even with no chance of fire. What happens when you hit the steering wheel, roll bar padding, or dash?

 

If some dummy wants to wear an open face that's on them. I can't, for the life of me, figure out why one would not wear a full face helmet.

But I see all kinds of stuff on track, like people with 5 and 6 point belts and no HANS device. I try to tell them, but they don't listen.

 

People spend over a thousand dollars for a set of tires but won't spend the same on a Hans. This year between a new helmet, two halo seats, and a fire suppression system, I spent about $5k on safety.

Open helmet? Only if I am a "star in a reasonably priced car" on Top Gear.

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Just returned from a weekend in Vegas, did the "Exotics Racing" bit at Vegas Speedway. I brought my CF Simpson Stingray helmet with me. They see it and tell me- "You can't use that helmet here, it's a full-face helmet." They then make me use one of their POS open-face helmets all day. I was not happy.

 

Buffoonery.

 

Darwin was an optimist...

 

That is right up there with the person I met once who told me she didn't use seatbelts out of concern for being pinned in the car in an accident ...

Did they give a reason for not allowing full face helmets?

 

Maybe they were worried that the additional bulk of the helmet would impede their ability to grab the steering wheel from the right seat.

 

Communication

 

Talk louder. Or buy a $20 helmet mic set.

 

I would let the liability insurance company for the track and Exotic Racing know that you were prevented from using a Snell SA 2005 rated helmet. It would get them thinking. It's your head and you should be able to use state of the art helmets. Was the helmet you were given even a racing helmet or just one for civilians?

 

Actually mine is a SA2010! Even worse for them.

 

Not saying they shouldn't. Just giving the reason.

Same reason they do open face in rally.

 

I have not yet reached the personal conclusion that only closed faced helmets should be allowed for racing at all levels. Nor for DE's. I do believe that folks are better off with closed faced helmets, but even that belief is not based on any review of science or statistics.

Having participated in performance driving (AX, DE and racing) for nearly 30 years, I have seen many improvements in the area of safety.

I have seen very few instances at the amateur level where a given driver/car combo was maxed out with respect to safety. My opinion is that this stuff all exists along a continuum, and folks should make informed decisions. And when safety equipment is used, it should be used in accordance with its design specs as reflected in the manufacturer's DFU.

As an example, I cannot conclude that amateur racing with an open faced helmet, where allowed, is any less safe than racing without an approved fire system. Yet many of us race this way, including the original poster of this thread (perhaps a veiled reference to a video in another recent thread in these forums).

I cannot conclude that it is any less safe than running a DE at Sears Point in street clothes using factory street car safety equipment in the latest GT3.

I can think of quite a few reasons folks running that business in Vegas would want drivers to run their choice of safety gear as opposed to the client's. Communication is just one possible reason. I can think of others. Sounds like they might turn away one of us wearing all of the safety gear we'd use for a PCA Club Race. In the end, it is their business to run.