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Safety Inspections at tech


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Safety inspection-wise the following items are consistently overlooked by teams presenting to tech.

 

Front and rear bulkheads must be completely sealed.  Tape is no longer considered a compliant method for sealing.  Any space larger than 1/4" must be sealed with metal.  Under 1/4" can be sealed with silicon or fire proof foam.

Any fuel, oil or water lines inside the car must be shielded with metal panels.  In some instance waterproof flex tubing can be used.  Aeroquip steel braided hoses and fittings still need to be covered.

 

Cool suit boxes must have 2 ratchet type straps (four attachment points) holding the box in place.  The plastic loops and the factory supplied velcro straps are not compliant. The coolsuit hoses don't have to be shielded but the quick disconnect fittings between the drivers coolsuit shirt and the tubing are highly recommended.
It is rude to dump cool suit water in your pit stall.

 

Front Door glass must be removed both sides.  Hatch or rear window and side quarter windows must be covered with 3m type clear hurricane or safety film if you keep the glass.  Lexan is free to replace existing glass/ windows.  If used, front and rear windshields must have 2 metal support braces, see the rule for specifics.  

 

Roll bar padding for areas of potential helmet contact must be covered with high density foam padding with a SFI cert of 45.1 or greater. Loose pads are not compliant and any movement must be eliminated.

 

Clip in seat belt hardware must have the clip lock pin or safety wire in place.

 

All Batteries must be securely mounted to the chassis with atleast two mounting points with large washers or an additional solid plate under the mount point to help dissipate load iF there is a crash. 
Batteries mounted in the drivers compartment (not separated by a bulkhead) must be in a high quality marine case with a sealed lid. (Boat battery box).

 

Driver and passenger doors windows must remain open. On the driverside, a triangle piece of lexan attached to the door like a old style vent window maybe added but cannot exceed 80 sq. in. The passenger side may add the same lexan triangle if the piece includes a naca duct.

 

Window net(s) should cover the driverside door opening from the steering wheel back to the drivers seat and must be less than 4 years old with a clearly dated  sfi certification.

Fire bottles must be in the green and soon will need to be in certification. Not over or under the green on the pressure gauge.  Over or under the green area make the system non compliant.  

Backside of all firebottle mounts if attached to the floor board must have large washers to dissipate load during crashes.  Atleast one nozzle should be located to spray directly on the drivers lower mid section.  If the nozzle is mounted at the area under the steering column the spray pattern will not be blocked by your legs and should not spray the drivers helmet.

 

And ofcourse all welds must be 360° around all tubing copings.

 

Hope I did not discribe any thing incorrectly and if you have questions you can email me direct.  Feel free to share this if you find it helpful, understandable and error free.

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  • Technical Advisory Committee

We do not charge points for bulkheads or firewalls . The rule book states metal bulkhead . Being quite familiar with corvettes replacing or covering  the fiberglass portions of the cowl, floor, and rear bulkhead with metal would be smart and incur no point add .

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29 minutes ago, Aquafi Racing said:

Ray, @Ray Franck 

Is the SFI foam only required where the drivers head could impact it?  Can we still use the cheaper stuff down next to the door?

 

Beat me to it!

 

Camaro has not been in a 2019 event, and I know I have to do this. I was bequeathed A TON of the legit high-density padding, but not w/ the SFI marking. If I could just buy SFI for head-area, then use up the other high-density in the other areas, that would be sweet. 

 

Thanks @National Tech, great and highly informative post of what you need to see @ tech. Pretty sure other than the high-density padding, I'm compliant but will be re-reading next time I'm at the shop. 

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  • Technical Advisory Committee

Yes the closed cell SFI foam wherever your helmet may reach . We have wached frame × frame video and it is amazing how much stretch happens on impact not just the belts but personal parts . In our thoughts mirror brackets or other things that stick out can damage your helmet and what is inside of it , I don't like  stuff sticking out . Cover all bars in the driver side upper portion of your cage . Yes you can use the softer stuff down below , broken bones are just gona hurt . 

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10 hours ago, National Tech said:

The coolsuit hoses don't have to be shielded but the quick disconnect fittings between the drivers coolsuit shirt and the tubing are highly recommended.

What does this mean? Are you saying that Coolsuit quick disconnect fittings are recommended to be shielded? Or are you saying that quick disconnects are recommended? I haven't seen a Coolsuit setup that did NOT have quick disconnects. I have to be misinterpreting this. 

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13 hours ago, Ray Franck said:

We do not charge points for bulkheads or firewalls . The rule book states metal bulkhead . Being quite familiar with corvettes replacing or covering  the fiberglass portions of the cowl, floor, and rear bulkhead with metal would be smart and incur no point add .

 

Thank you Ray

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8 hours ago, Snorman said:

What does this mean? Are you saying that Coolsuit quick disconnect fittings are recommended to be shielded? Or are you saying that quick disconnects are recommended? I haven't seen a Coolsuit setup that did NOT have quick disconnects. I have to be misinterpreting this. 

 

I re-read that one a few times too, I think what he is getting at was to have something in place to prevent massive water spillage from the driver change? We also use the QD's with internal shut off so never an issue on the suit connection side. You can buy them w/o the internal shut off (I bought a couple from McMaster to help w suit cleaning post race). We do spill water occasionally bailing water/adding ice, but we just sweep it out and it dries very fast. If it is a large enough amount to be an issue we just use some speedy-dry on it. 

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1 hour ago, pintodave said:

I re-read that one a few times too, I think what he is getting at was to have something in place to prevent massive water spillage from the driver change? We also use the QD's with internal shut off so never an issue on the suit connection side. You can buy them w/o the internal shut off (I bought a couple from McMaster to help w suit cleaning post race). We do spill water occasionally bailing water/adding ice, but we just sweep it out and it dries very fast. If it is a large enough amount to be an issue we just use some speedy-dry on it. 

I've never seen a shirt or system that didn't have quick-disconnects. All of the various coolsuit boxes use them on their lines. Heck, I even built a pit coolbox and bought the same quick-disconnects from McMaster Carr. 

So not sure what's being said here. It would be insane to even consider requiring teams to enclose coolsuit tubes in steel shielding. What's next...we have to enclose the lines for drink bottles? 

And yeah...when you're running a coolsuit, it's usually hot. So any water spilled in the pit box dries pretty quickly. I get not dumping a 19 quart box in the pit box, but a quart or two of water isn't going to hurt anything. We run 3 boxes for 2 cars and load them up behind the pit wall before stops so works well. 

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Not to totally go off the rails and bury information in this thread, but I'd like to see a couple of "alternate methods" for securing cool suit boxes. Two straps is a royal pain. We've employed aluminum side straps, through the cooler tabs AND screwed to the side of the cooler, coupled with one strap around the chassis mount (not velcro, a click style). Survived the hit at Daytona in the Lincoln, which was a HARD hit.

 

I'd even be willing to through-bolt my aluminum side straps (fender washer from the inside, bolt placement up higher in the box coupled with some silicon to seal it) - thru bolted the cooler and bolted down to your mounting point on the chassis, that is literally not going anywhere. 

Edited by pintodave
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1 hour ago, mindspin311 said:

Will the following be added the the rulebook for 2020:

  • Tape not allowed for firewalls
  • 2 straps for coolshirt boxes

As well as:

  • Clip in seat belt hardware must have the clip lock pin or safety wire in place.
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When did the sealed battery box make it into the rules?  We have been running a plastic non-sealed battery box since we have been in the series in 2011 and never had tech indicate anything else was required.  Tech has had us put electrical tape on the positive post is all.

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10 minutes ago, pintodave said:

Not to totally go off the rails and bury information in this thread, but I'd like to see a couple of "alternate methods" for securing cool suit boxes. Two straps is a royal pain. We've employed aluminum side straps, through the cooler tabs AND screwed to the side of the cooler, coupled with one strap around the chassis mount (not velcro, a click style). Survived the hit at Daytona in the Lincoln, which was a HARD hit.

 

I'd even be willing to through-bolt my aluminum side straps (fender washer from the inside, bolt placement up higher in the box coupled with some silicon) - thru bolted the cooler and tied down to your mounting point on the chassis, that is literally not going anywhere. 

 

Agreed! In my opinion a method to secure the box "permanently" that allows access to the top without undoing it all is a MUCH better way to go about it.  Not only is it easier to refill the box by just unclipping the lid, it also leaves no/little chance that someone is going to screw it up when in a rush.  ive been thinking about doing something like an aluminum frame that surrounds the box and bolts to the floor.  That way any lateral and/or forward force in a crash is taken by the frame, not the tie downs.

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1 hour ago, pintodave said:

Not to totally go off the rails and bury information in this thread, but I'd like to see a couple of "alternate methods" for securing cool suit boxes. Two straps is a royal pain. We've employed aluminum side straps, through the cooler tabs AND screwed to the side of the cooler, coupled with one strap around the chassis mount (not velcro, a click style). Survived the hit at Daytona in the Lincoln, which was a HARD hit.

 

I'd even be willing to through-bolt my aluminum side straps (fender washer from the inside, bolt placement up higher in the box coupled with some silicon to seal it) - thru bolted the cooler and bolted down to your mounting point on the chassis, that is literally not going anywhere. 

 

I agree :) 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, pintodave said:

Not to totally go off the rails and bury information in this thread, but I'd like to see a couple of "alternate methods" for securing cool suit boxes. Two straps is a royal pain. We've employed aluminum side straps, through the cooler tabs AND screwed to the side of the cooler, coupled with one strap around the chassis mount (not velcro, a click style). Survived the hit at Daytona in the Lincoln, which was a HARD hit.

 

I'd even be willing to through-bolt my aluminum side straps (fender washer from the inside, bolt placement up higher in the box coupled with some silicon to seal it) - thru bolted the cooler and bolted down to your mounting point on the chassis, that is literally not going anywhere. 

 

I'm with this guy, we used one good tie down strap and the "flimsy" Velcro straps at Indy and our cool shirt box didn't go anywhere after the impact.  We had the one strap system down pretty good in the pits.  Also with the way its worded "4 attachment points, I am guessing that means I cant wrap the straps around my cool shirt mount that is bolted in to the stock seat mounting points?

 

And we are not dumping all water in the pits, we are just washing down the lil bit of fuel we spilled.  😁   In all seriousness,  we put giant ice blocks in our coolers, we have to take the water that melted from the last one and get a quart or less out.  We didn't really think or haven't heard of anyone having an issue with it until now.  We cant really drink it, I guess we could dump it into another cooler to then dump into the grass/trash can/toilet/next pit stalls beer cooler?

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4 hours ago, Snorman said:

I've never seen a shirt or system that didn't have quick-disconnects. All of the various coolsuit boxes use them on their lines. Heck, I even built a pit coolbox and bought the same quick-disconnects from McMaster Carr. 

So not sure what's being said here. It would be insane to even consider requiring teams to enclose coolsuit tubes in steel shielding. What's next...we have to enclose the lines for drink bottles? 

And yeah...when you're running a coolsuit, it's usually hot. So any water spilled in the pit box dries pretty quickly. I get not dumping a 19 quart box in the pit box, but a quart or two of water isn't going to hurt anything. We run 3 boxes for 2 cars and load them up behind the pit wall before stops so works well. 

 

I think what he is getting at is the new "safety" quick connects that will release by just pulling on them after 19lbs of force is applied. The standard quick connect requires you to push the tab in. Unfortunately, I don't know of another source for generic ones of this type yet like McMaster or Fresh Water Systems.

 

https://discoveryparts.com/race-car-driver-cooling-water-hoses-and-accessories/1120-coolshirt-safety-pull-release-connectors-prc-2.html

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