Race Safety Innovations

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Friday May 13 2011
Since the last update on the Sprint Car safety project, Danny Martin Jr. has been on a winning streak that is unchallenged nationwide.

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2009-2010 Sprint Car Safety Project

By Keith L. Grant; Race Safety Innovations 3/10/10

Part 1; Section 2; The Cockpit Safety System Installation

We continue Part 1 of our safety project starting with our 8 Point seat mounting plan. The first and most important part of any cockpit safety system is mounting the seat properly in the cockpit. The main goals to mounting a seat properly are;

Make sure the driver fits the seat properly and the seat is designed for the type of race car it is being mounted in. Asphalt late model seats don't belong in a sprint car and vice versa.
Visually inspect the seat for previous mounting holes, cracks or crash damage that could pose a problem in any potential accident. Plate, reinforce and weld up any large holes that may tear or be unstable with the new mounting locations especially if the seat has been moved from chassis to chassis often. Seats that have suffered serious crash impacts should be examined by the manufacturer for any structural defects needing corrective repairs.
Make sure that the seat mounts and fasteners are separate from the seat belt anchors as described in our 8 point plan. You don't want damage of one attachment point to compromise two parts of your safety system.

Follow along as we detail a common sense and easily applied 8 point seat mounting and proper restraint harness installation plan for your sprint car or open wheel racer.

8 Point Seat Mounting Plan

Bolting in a cheaply built lightweight racing seat with 3 - 1/4" titanium bolts is not smart. It might be light but is definitely not safe. As we said before, the cockpit safety system has to work together as one unit and not as separate components to be truly effective. That means that the safety harness cannot do its restraining job properly while holding the seat in place at the same time. Each component has its particular job to do as part of the complete system. If one part of the system breaks down, the rest cannot make up the difference properly.

So we set about putting together a guideline to mount seats properly in a sprint car which can also be applied to other open wheel racers. It also coincides with ButlerBuilt's plan for proper sprint car seat mounting as shown on their website. Check your particular seat builder's info for additional installation info for their recommendations as some may be different.

The 8 points we used to mount the seat securely in this chassis are;

2 manufacturer supplied horseshoes around the lower seat bar at the bottom hip panels
2 bolts through the front of the seat floor and the seat frame (with large washers and/or flat bar/plate support to reduce bolt pull through)
2 bolts mid shoulder blade into the lower A-frame lateral bar
2 manufacturer supplied horseshoes on the head surround flange at the top of the A-frame

These 8 points are depicted in the following pictures. We fully secured the lower seat/pelvis, mid back and upper head surround to the chassis to give a fully secured seat that will not shift, flex or become loose in the cockpit in a serious wreck. Previous seat connector locations by many drivers would not provide for this secure a seat foundation. There are many pictures and videos to prove this.

With the added head and shoulder surrounds, this ButlerBuilt seat can withstand a serious impact while providing the driver with the best possible chance of minimizing injuries in conjunction with a good HNS, properly mounted restraint system and good quality personal driver safety equipment.


2 Points - Mid Back/Shoulder to A-Frame


2 Points - Upper Head Surround	4 Points - Lower Seat and Bottom

Note; the upper head surround flange will have to be notched to fit the upper A-frame correctly especially if the seat is offset or reclined as was the case of this installation

Other seat manufacturers may have similar mounting locations but offer a variety of mounting methods. Please refer to your particular seat manufacturer's specifications for respective mounting procedures as they may differ from our results.

Our findings show this to be the most secure method to mount a full containment seat in your sprint car, but also know that changes or variations in your seat or chassis may prevent you from repeating this procedure exactly as outlined.

Use common sense when installing a seat; if the installation looks flimsy or weak, don't use it! Contact a professional for assistance if needed.
Use multiple 5/16" (grade 8 preferred) minimum fasteners as outlined. No home improvement store Grade 2 hardware allowed!
Use large bodied high strength flat washers to reduce fastener pull through especially in aluminum components. Flat bar in key areas is acceptable.
Contour or radius flat washers to match tubing diameter to reduce pull through.
Use locknuts whenever possible to reduce the tendencies of fasteners loosening in critical areas.
Avoid lightening brackets and supports at all times. They are there for a purpose and your life may depend on the seat performing as designed and manufactured and should not be modified for your personal weight needs. You might be wrong in your redesign or modification efforts!

Common Restraint System Complaints

One of the biggest complaints we have heard for years by sprint car drivers is that they can't keep the belts tight no matter what the brand of restraint harness or type of racing seat was. Because of where the lap belts are normally secured on the outside chassis rails, it is difficult to tighten those belts by the driver and keep them tight. On many occasions, a crew member has to assist the driver by tightening the belts prior to practice, heats or the feature.

However, if the harness as a whole loosens during the race as most do, the only adjustment a driver has available to them is to retighten the shoulder belts in an attempt at re-tightening ALL the belts to some degree. A driver cannot easily re-tighten the lap belt from inside the cockpit because of the "old school" design; so as a result, the entire restraint system is compromised in its attempts to keep a driver tight in the seat and secure to race safely. It's been this way for many, many years.

Another complaint is that belts loosen during an accident especially if the car ended up flipping during a wreck. We have heard several times that the shoulder belts actually slipped off the driver's shoulders while in mid air during a crash. Luckily, in many cases, the lap belt has kept some drivers inside the car but not by much. Numerous drivers have complained of hip and leg pain after a wreck and back injuries have been commonplace in sprint car racing for years because of poor lap belt placement or harness movement, poor seat installations and other related cockpit issues.

Sadly, many drivers over the years have succumbed to their injuries from being thrown out of or even run over by their own race car or a competitor due to this problem. We hope to change many of these problems through this safety project and the awareness we hope will be presented to solve some of these problems.

Several Head and Neck System (HNS) devices rely on proper seat belt anchorage for their system to be effective. We heard constant complaints about excessive HNS movement because of this problem causing upper shoulder, chest and neck injuries instead of protecting the driver from them as designed

Remember; all of the components of a cockpit safety system have to work together as one to be effective, not just one or two individual components!

We also found that various HNS manufacturers love to take skewed injury statistics, sled test results and post incident crash analysis information to "prove" that their competitor's products are flawed and that their own products are superior as a result. They too are in competition with each other to prove which company has the best product on the market.

In fact, it appears that seat belt anchorage problems have caused problems for several of the HNS products whether they will acknowledge it or not.

For the sake of this argument and this project, we chose not to involve any HNS manufacturers or products in this discussion except to uncover the potential and basic problems faced with many of the products. We chose to stay true to the fundamental problems particularly in these race cars;

If we properly mount the seat in the car; keep the driver secured in the seat with the properly installed restraint system; insure that the driver wears the recommended personal protective equipment; then the entire cockpit safety system should be adequate at reducing most injury potential during a typical racing accident barring unforeseen circumstances or bizarre events. Sounds logical, right?

The evolution of seat belts and restraint harnesses

Beginning with hemp rope and simple cotton straps in auto racing's early days and progressing through modified automobile seat belts and current high strength nylon and polyester blends of today, restraint harness webbing is a very important part of a racers overall safety package.

Sprint car restraint harnesses take an obvious beating in everyday competition. In fact, dirt track racing in general poses a more realistic problem to belts with chronic dirt and fuel contamination; abrasion damage and UV light degradation problems. Water retention issues due to repeat cleaning of the vehicle after each race also cause adjusters to slip under load. That's not a good thing.

To summarize; most of these contaminants, damage and water retention issues severely reduce the ability of the harness to perform to its original SFI performance requirements within a very short time after installation.

To get more insight on this topic, we contacted Scott McPhillips from Hooker Harness to help us with this project. Scott and his team build safety harnesses for all types of aircraft from sport and stunt planes to military applications as well as all types of race vehicles. We have worked together on various topics over the last few years and they were very willing to assist us on this latest project.

Since their introduction of the ratchet tensioner to the Hooker Harness product line about 10 years ago, their test data and racer response has shown that the problem of loose belts has been greatly reduced especially for sprint cars with this product. The differences in the mechanical ratcheting ability of this product to tighten belts against other products available that rely just on friction, cam or slide adjusters to reduce slippage are quite a contrast. Many racers have also told us of the same results.

Hooker Harness took their professional and industry experience one step farther with this product and developed a restraint system for this troublesome application. We think the ratchet restraint system is worthy of contemplating for any open wheel racer with this need but ultimately, it's your choice.

Other restraint manufacturers claim that their new lightweight adjusters provide an added level of stability through reduction of adjuster slippage for this purpose. With the seat and belt anchor mounting changes we have developed and outlined during this project, all of the products we evaluated or tested should actually perform better due to the secure mounting methods described.

There are several less expensive products on the market that while they pass SFI specs (brand new out of the box) and may save the racer hard earned money, their overall quality may not be as good as some of the "top" brands. They may or may not stand up to the rigors, demands and harsh racing environments they are exposed to. Price alone should not be the determining factor in your safety equipment selection but in some cases; as long as it complies with SFI specs, it's all a racer looks for.

All of the products we tested, used or evaluated must meet either SFI 16.1 or 16.5 to be approved for use in most racing series. SFI 16.1 restraint specs are outlined for overall driver restraints using three different types of harness configurations while 16.5 is dedicated specifically as a stock car application. This allows a variation of motorsports vehicles to have several SFI labeled restraint options without being forced to adopt only one specification unless the sanctioning body specifically refers to and mandates it.

Proper Restraint Belt Mounting and Adjuster Use

Another important part of proper restraint performance is correct belt anchor placement and proper adjuster threading techniques. Most of the restraint manufacturers have website technical info on how to properly mount all the different belts in the harness whether they are 5, 6 or 7 point systems. They also have illustrations on how to properly thread 3 bar adjusters, quick links and end fittings as well.

We direct you to your particular harness manufacturer's info for their specific installation information, but follow along as we provide you with the basic guidelines for what we feel is the best sprint car restraint harness installation whether you use a ratchet system or not.

Lap Belts
For years, most drivers and chassis builders have wrapped their lap belt anchor ends around the outer chassis rail next to their seat mounts. It was the easiest way to connect the lap belt to the strongest part of the chassis and seat mount frame. Few chassis builders provide a chassis mount or tab close enough to the seat for the bolt through lap belt anchors to be effective.

Loose lap belts also reduce the ability of the shoulder belts to remain in their respective position to control the upper body motion properly in a wreck. Wrap around belts also have a tendency to slide on the seat rail, sometimes under a load, unless they are secured in place to prevent lateral movement. Most are taped to the chassis rail in the wrong location for proper load retention needs.

Serious injuries to the abdomen, groin and upper thigh area are all as a result of improper belt placement and anchoring of the lap belts with the resulting load angle pulling either too low on the hips and thighs or too high on the abdomen. Numerous IRL, NASCAR and restraint and seat manufacturer sled tests proved that time and time again.

As I said earlier in this article, certain HNS depend upon the shoulder belts doing their job and holding the HNS in place. If the belts move, the HNS moves out of its design parameters and consequently, needless injuries have occurred.

Military tests on fighter pilots proved that in order to best protect the pilot in an impact or through their G-rolls and maneuvers, the aviator's pelvis had to stay put in the seat for them to get the best support from their belts as a comprehensive restraint system. Race car drivers are no different. Oddly enough, once the sled tests were performed at several top research universities in this country for restraint performance, HNS and full containment seat evaluations also concurred that the only way to properly keep the driver in the seat is to make sure the pelvis stays put in the seat. May be there is something to this theory after all!

When the pelvis stays locked in the seat, the body is then able to absorb more of the impact load, then control and dissipate that energy. Less bodily injury occurs with the properly mounted full containment seat, HNS and driver safety equipment working together as a comprehensive system.

This has been proven time and time again with definitive sled testing data by many sources. This is not a fluke or one man's opinion, just concrete evidence that seat assemblies and restraint systems have to work together for the best performance and driver protection; period!

The following videos show belt movement with a wrap around style and double shear bracket as tested in our project. Note how the wrap around style has to be secured to keep from sliding or moving while double shear the bracket mount simply pivots to adjust to the load path during impact.

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Lap Belt Anchoring Methods

During the construction of the new Shaw Safer Design coil over chassis, we decided to use double shear brackets instead of wrapping the lap belt anchor point as has been done for years in these types of chassis. We have seen several methods used to secure the wrapped belts to the seat rail to prevent movement such as; electrical and racer's tape and riveted washers drilled through the webbing into the chassis rail! We've also seen welded single shear brackets or tabs used with the belt anchor locked up tight and virtually unable to move which is very dangerous if mounted incorrectly to start with.

Double shear brackets utilize a U shaped steel bracket with 2 equal legs to bolt the belt anchor bolt through. These brackets utilize a grade eight bolt and locknut with a sleeve spacer separating each leg of the bracket. This design allows the bracket legs to be tightened against the sleeve, allowing the belt anchor to pivot and self adjust to the load as needed with no restriction which has also been a debatable and controversial topic to some seat manufacturers with good intentions.

Another option used by chassis builders is to weld solid steel sleeves through the chassis or seat frame tubing as a bolt through anchor for lap belts. If the sleeve and belt anchor are located properly to start with, this is a viable option used by some chassis and seat builders instead of the double shear brackets we chose to use for our project. Location is very important for all lap belt anchors.

Remember the "belt dumping" problems of years past? That was a problem where the belt anchor and/or adjuster cut through the webbing like a hot knife of an improperly installed anchor or poor adjuster mounting angle under load. A double shear style bracket can prevent that problem from occurring. What is most important to prevent belt dumping is that the belt anchors must be properly located to start with in any type of race car no matter which type anchor system you choose to use

With the help of A&A Manufacturing, we designed a new double shear bracket to reflect a 30 degree offset pin location to compensate for the load path the new lap belts and ratchet tensioner would take in their proper mounting place on the chassis. The pictures show various brackets we tested.


3 types of double shear brackets commonly used in racing. Note the one piece U shape of these brackets.

The following pictures show how we used A&A Manufacturing double shear weld on brackets to mount the Hooker Harness ratchet tensioner assembly on this sprint car chassis. We also added a secondary inner seat mount rail to the standard seat frame both sides for the narrower seat.

Note; before you weld these brackets in place, check with your chassis builder to make sure that your seat is mounted properly and that you have the correct lap belt mounts to use these new double shear brackets. TIG welding is the recommended choice for 4130 chromoly chassis. Don't skimp!

As you can see, inner seat rail size was increased for more support as well over our earlier 2009 design. We felt as though these new 30 degree offset brackets would be more resistant to shear at the chassis and would put the belt loading path directly in the center of the bracket rather than the 90 degree straight up bracket we first used in the earlier design.


Right and left hand double shear brackets TIG welded to the inner seat rail for added strength.


Here is how the new Hooker Harness ratchet system looks with the new 30 degree offset brackets.


In these shots, you can plainly see where the inner seat bar properly locates the restraint mounting point.

This new design puts the lap belts at the proper angle to secure the pelvis in the right points as indicated in crash sled testing. Note; we suggest that the ratchet handle be removed prior to any racing activity to reduce the possibility of becoming dislodged during an accident or contact by a foreign object. We also found that once we got the lap belt adjusted to the driver's liking, there was no need to keep tightening these lap belts as they did not loosen up during a normal sprint car race. That's a good thing.

Shoulder Belts

Shoulder belts have been mounted on the rear lower chassis cross rail for years for strength and ease of mounting. They have used a wrap around style similar to the lap belt mounts for years. One main reason that they were wrapped around the lower chassis rail is that the A-frame mounts that make up the rear of the cockpit and seat mounting areas have a tendency to break at key areas in high impact crashes.

The thought process behind mounting the belts at the lower chassis rails (besides being quick and easy) by many was that if the A-frame did break, it would be the strongest point for the belts to stay attached in a last ditch effort to keep the driver and seat inside the damaged race car. The main problem here is that there is so much belt stretch with a lower chassis rail shoulder belt mount that these belts don't do their job effectively anyway.

Many a race car either on asphalt or dirt has used this quick and easy way to attach shoulder belts without understanding the dynamics involved during a crash. Education is the key here to proper belt anchor mounting locations. Once again, sled tests have proven all of these older theories wrong and actually detrimental to the drivers well being as a result of these archaic installation methods. The crash test dummies don't lie.

Another key problem in all shoulder belt mounting issues in any race car is the location of the shoulder belts in relation to the driver's shoulders. Many race cars provide no lateral support behind the seat at or just below the top of the driver's shoulders. We have seen many shoulder belts pass through the rough seat openings and go directly to the floor or rear mounts without any rear bar, (also known in stock cars as the #7 bar) support or directional change. That is a very dangerous installation for the driver.

With no lateral A-frame bar to change the belt direction from where the shoulder belts secure the top of the driver's shoulder to their lower mounting point, these belts are easily cut or sheared at the seat openings rendering them ineffective in a crash. They also put an undue amount of compression stress on the driver's spine in a frontal impact adding to spinal injuries and fractures instead of properly restraining the driver in an accident as intended.

Most sprint cars do not have sufficient room to mount shoulder belts directly to this lateral A-frame seat bar for the proper belt anchoring methods as tested in other vehicle applications. That's another reason why most sprint car drivers have chosen to wrap their belts at the lower chassis rail as described above.

Doug has always designed his A-frame to have the middle lateral bar to be located approximately 1" below the level of the seat belt holes in the seat for the shoulder belts. That location gives the best angle for mounting the belts directly or for giving a directional change for other anchor locations.

The following pictures show how we mounted the shoulder belts to the lower A-frame lateral bar to reduce belt stretch and made a directional change at the middle bar to give the proper angle to our driver's shoulders. Because our driver wanted his seat mounted to the left and reclined, it made for a slight mounting challenge for the seat and belt anchors. Belt stretch here should be minimal.

Pictures of the middle A-bar approximately 1" below the shoulder belt opening in the seat.

Most belt manufacturers and seat manufacturers suggest that the shoulder belts anchors should be approx.10 degrees below the plane of the top of the shoulder or clavicle area. That horizontal anchor point translates to approx 1" below the top of the shoulder or clavicle area where the shoulder belt contacts that area. In a sprint car application, the lateral A-frame bar provides a directional change equivalent to the 1" lower anchor mounting point as described above.

We did initially attempt to mount the shoulder belts directly to the seat bar as shown here. This would have been the best method based on sled test scenarios and a little common sense. But, because of the close proximity to the seat because of its weird mounting angle, the belts could not be wrapped properly to keep the 3 bar adjuster from protruding through the shoulder belt holes.


Belts mounted directly to the bar for this application would have protruded through under load in an accident.

This problem could possibly injure the driver's neck or head in an accident or interfere with the HNS, so we chose to use the lower A-frame bar as the alternate anchor mount. A redesign of this middle A-frame bar would be the only way to accommodate this top belt mount plan.

What we did find during our research is; that to lessen the chance of the A-frame becoming damaged in a bad wreck, we wanted to make an improvement in the commonly used A-frame system. Doug and I thought that we could strengthen the A-frame and the belt mounts by continuing the middle A-frame lateral bar to the outer chassis upright to provide an increased level of safety not seen in these chassis to date. Doug will be implementing this new change in all new Shaw Safer Design sprint car chassis starting with the newest 2010 coil over chassis in production


New A-frame reinforcements to the outer main cage uprights for 2010.

Anti Submarine Belt

The purpose of the anti submarine belt has been confusing for many years. Many a racer has been taught that the "crotch" belt was used to keep a driver from sliding under the lap belts in a wreck.

With the obvious problems of belt installations over the years and the lack of knowledge about the restraint harness as a part of the cockpit safety SYSTEM; many a driver has suffered painful and sometimes permanent groin and pelvis injuries by forcefully contacting this belt in an accident.

The true purpose of this important link in the restraint harness is to prevent the lap belts from rising up the driver's abdomen and to work systematically with the shoulder belts to keep the pelvis pinned in the seat while controlling the forward movement of the driver's torso.

As you can see, if any of these points in the overall restraint system don't work as designed, the entire system can fail resulting in serious injuries or possible death of the driver. This is not a scare tactic but a simple and factual reality of this sport that must be taken seriously when installing a restraint system in a vehicle.

Recent changes to this link in the restraint system have produced 6, 7 and even 9 point restraint systems. For this project, we chose the standard 5 point latch and link system consisting of a single point anti submarine belt.

Always make sure there are no sharp points, weld spatter or other objects that could cut the belt especially while under load in an accident. Make sure that the seat hole and the hip pan hole has a grommet or edging around the edges and that any extra slack from the belt is wrapped and secured so it doesn't become entangled in a broken driveline incident.

The picture to the right shows where we mounted the anti submarine or "crotch" belt in the Shaw Racing #24. As you can see by the picture, we shimmed up the bottom of the seat to prevent any abrasion problems from damaging the belt. Because Jeff wanted the seat reclined a bit, it brought the mounting point of the anti sub belt a little further back than we would have wanted, but we're still in a good location for effective used of the belt as designed.


This is the new Hooker Harness SFI 16.1 Type 2 ratchet restraint harness installed in our project car.

Since Jeff uses a HANS, we opted for the new narrower (1.75") belt system that is being widely used to combat the wider 3" belt slippage issues off the HANS collar. Scott from Hooker Harness said that this narrow shoulder harness has become the hot commodity especially in the sprint car world.

We strongly recommend you only use the narrow harness with recommendations from your HNS or harness supplier. If in doubt, contact their technical departments for assistance.

Between the changes from 2009 and the new belts with the quick release European style adjusters, Jeff has stated that he feels much more secure in the seat than ever before. In recent trial runs with the car in the first few opening races, there have been no complaints or issues with the new cockpit safety system. We plan to add knee knockers and impact padding shortly to complete the project.

Since this project started, Jeff has left the team to pursue other endeavors and we wish him the very best. Danny Martin now drives the #24 Shaw Racing Sprint Car with several wins and top 3 finishes to his credit. Danny has continued with the efforts begun by Jeff and this team and plans to continue through to completion. He is also excited about the changes we are making towards improving Sprint Car safety and his role in making it happen.

Summary;

What has been established through Part 1 of this safety project is that we have identified areas of improvement and have offered solutions and suggestions in the areas of improved chassis modification, proper seat mounting and belt anchor locations. We have offered this information freely and hope others will take advantage of it and to build upon it for the benefit of their fellow racers as well as themselves.

Lastly; one topic that cannot be forgotten and should not be ignored by any racer;

Proper care and maintenance of all safety equipment can mean the difference between life and death. Racers need to be vigilant and take care of their equipment as instructed by the manufacturers. This includes restraint systems and seats as well as all of their own personal safety equipment. Anything less could result in a catastrophic failure of this equipment just when a racer needs it most.

For project pictures, info and technical data on these and more sprint car safety subjects; go to;

Shaw Racing Products; www.shawsprints.com or Race Safety Innovations; www.rsisafety.com.

Many thanks to our Part 1 safety project partners;

A&A Manufacturing; www.aa-mfg.com
ButlerBuilt Professional Seat Systems; www.butlerbuilt.net
Hooker Harness; www.hookerharness.com

Part 2 of our project focuses on suspension and major component retention concerns. Together with Amick Associates, we designed a full tether system for sprint cars that has never been done before. Stay tuned as we continue our Sprint Car Safety Project and bring our sprint car safety focus to a new level.

Part 2: Suspension and Major Component Retention System

Part 3; Fire Safety Improvements and Tail Tank Protection System

Go to Part 2