I was made aware recently of a couple of incidences of complete disregard for safety and/or equipment at a couple of tracks. I won’t go into detail about who or where, you can Google search on Youtube to find videos I’m sure. But in both instances, everyone watching was asking the lead title question.
In the first, the driver got out of a car that had begun to burn. The “fire/safety” truck crew drove up behind the car, downwind of the smoke no less, and then proceeded to watch as the car nearly burned to the ground with no effort to put it out. The driver and a helper from somewhere grabbed fire extinguishers out of the “fire/safety” truck and were able to put out the flames.
It’s one thing to not have adequate equipment available, but to not use what you have? Maybe, in defense of that crew, the lead officials might have told them not to go into dangers way to try to fight the fire. Then why be there in the first place? What if the driver had been in the car, would that crew have waited for a professional fire-fighting crew to arrive? And shouldn’t one of them at least have had a fire suit on?
The reason we have dedicated fire and safety crews at race tracks instead of the community fire trucks and crews is mostly about cost. The professionals have to get paid and it’s not cheap. So, most tracks have their own crews that may or may not be trained and/or motivated to react to a fire or extraction, which leads us to the other incident.
At a dirt track in the mid-west, a racers car rolled over and he was trapped inside. There was no fire, but the driver started to smell fuel leaking and we all know what can happen next. There was, understandably, panic on the part of the driver.
The “fire/safety” crew took every bit of fifteen minutes, from what I was told, to roll the car over. Meanwhile, with a lot of personal effort, the driver did get out on his own. The bystanders were left with that same lead question, what just happened here?
Had the car caught fire, the driver would have been badly burned and possibly killed. In our new kinder and gentler society these days, maybe some of us don’t feel the need to react quickly to serious and dangerous situations. Maybe we need to.
These kinds of “What just happened…” events don’t ever need to happen. Is it the lack of training, lack of caring, or lack of direction? Did we as a society stop caring about other’s lives and property? That is exactly what the bystanders and everyone else who watch such things on video are saying to themselves.
No race is worth a life, period. That is why races get canceled when someone gets killed in a race car. That race just isn’t that important. But accidents will happen and a few racers a year will die. That is a fact we all must live with. But we all want the number of fatalities to be lower or non-existent, don’t we?
That’s why I even bothered to write this, to let everyone who deals with these types of things that it’s time to wake up and do a better job. There are wonderful fire and safety crews out there in greater numbers than the bad ones. Yes, a few bad apples shouldn’t ruin it for the rest of us, but they do.
I hope that lessons have been learned and steps have been taken to correct the obvious lack of concern shown in the above examples. Back in the early days of racing, many fellow crew members would have jumped in to help in both of these situations, but are now restrained from helping. But, you cannot expect them to just stand by and watch what happened.
I guess it’s time to do another track safety story. In addition, we might ask race teams to take a little survey to rate their tracks safety performance/readiness. Then we will post the name of the tracks and the results of the survey. Hey, if the shoe fits?
In fact, let’s get started right now. My email is listed below. If you want to chime in, please tell us your track name and your evaluation of the performance of its safety crew on a scale of one to ten, ten of course being wonderful. We won’t publish your name or any information about you. This is about rating race tracks safety record and performance. Let’s see where this goes.
If you have comments or questions about this or anything racing related, send them to my email address: chassisrd@aol.com or mail can be sent to Circle Track, Senior Tech Editor, 1733 Alton Parkway, Suite 100, Irvine, CA.
Jacking Effect Discussion
Hi Bob,
Can you explain the jacking effect principal for the front suspension. I have been looking around can’t find much on it.
Thanks, Grant Howard
Grant,
I am really glad you asked. I dove into that subject about a year ago after I saw a video espousing the benefits of it by arguably the “inventor” of that concept who started writing about it some ten years ago. Well, he really wasn’t the true inventor, it was mentioned in the popular book on vehicle dynamics, Race Car Vehicle Dynamics, by William F. and Douglas L. Milliken. He just tried to expand on the concept. I’ll call him Mr. Video because I’m not sure he wants his name used.
In my copy of the 1995 edition of the book jacking is referred to and talked about on page 614. The most important part of the bottom paragraph is the statement, “This is most apparent on older cars with swing axle rear suspensions such as the Formula V.”
The Volkswagen rear suspension was a swing axle design and the outside wheel would jack up under the chassis in a hard turn. This is what they were talking about, not necessarily the double A-arm suspension in the front of most stock cars.
So, after seeing the video, I called Mr. Video and had a little discussion. I told him I could find no significance to Jacking Effect as it relates to the AA-arm suspension, but that I would research it and build a model that would test the results. He asked if I would send him a drawing of the model so he could ascertain if he agreed with the design and I did. He thought it was a wonderful model and would give us the results we were looking for.
I built the model and started testing. I applied the loads at the tire “contact patches” in proportional amounts, like in real cornering. I put 35% of the total force at left tire and 65% of the total in the right tire in weighted buckets that pulled on the contract patch horizontally. The chassis was restrained at the Center of Gravity. I then measured the roll angle to record a measure of roll resistance, which is the only measure we have. Remember that Mr. Video agreed with the method and fixture I was using. Here are the results.
In the model, I could set upper and lower arm angles in many different configurations, but starting out, I used common arm angles that we would see on a typical modern asphalt super late model. When I applied the force, I got a roll angle of 6.0 degrees.
I then put 100% of the lateral force loading on the left tire and 0% on the right tire. The roll angle was again 6.0. Then I put 100% of the loading on the right tire and 0% on the left tire and got 5.9 degrees. So, basically, I got no difference in roll angles and/or roll resistance from huge differences in lateral load distribution on the tire contact patches.
What that serves to do is dispute the theory of Jacking Force dynamics as it is being preached. I reported the results to Mr. Video and then took the model to a neutral spot near where he lives and a place that specializes in vehicle dynamics testing, Morse Measurements in Salisbury, NC with Bob Simons. There we all did the experiments with similar results.
So, Grant, I don’t think much of the theory of jacking force having tested and proven it to be of no consequence. But those of us who live and breathe vehicle dynamics and work with race cars on-track will tell you that there is definitely something to roll center/instant center location associated with control arm angles. What we suggest, and coincidentally what proponents of JF suggest for moment center/instant center placements are in agreement. Isn’t that all we need to know?
Spotters Causing The “Big One”
Bob,
I believe spotters cause as many wrecks as they prevent. At NASCR super speedways the call from the spotter, “he has got a run on you”, is causing the driver to try and block causing the big one.
I believe the radios should be shut of the last 20 laps so the drivers have to drive and not block. NASCAR can have a frequency to radio to all drivers if there is a safety concern.
Clem Zahrobsky
Clem,
I don’t agree with you in concept. Granted, there might be a problem at times on super speedways, but the blame for “the big one” could be put in a lot of places. I know for a fact that spotters save many more incidents than cause them.
In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find any spotter who has actually caused a wreck. The spotters I know take their duties seriously and would never put the driver in a situation that would/could cause a wreck.
I could name off many instances of spotters saving a situation and this response could go on and on. Suffice it to say, most, if not all, spotters do their jobs well and continually keep aggressive driver from making bad decisions.
Ty’s Throttle Control
Bob,
I just read your April, ‘17 article on the Hot Rod network about Ty Majeski. Sounds like he and Jimmie Johnson came from the same mold. Both of these guys have mastered the art of throttle control, corner entry and exit strategy.
What you wrote about Ty I could visualize Jimmie doing the same. Thanks for the review. I now know who will succeed Jimmie when he retires next year.
John Dimmick
John,
Throttle control is a well-kept secret among the very elite drivers in history. I recently heard a very successful past racer who is now a consultant say, “there are a thousand positions in that throttle pedal.”
The late Dale Earnhardt, Sr. showed his skill one time in a test at Richmond. I heard this first hand from a data specialist who was working for a newer Cup team at this test. He said their regular driver was about a half second slow of the best times. The owner apparently knew Earnhardt and asked him if he would take the car out for a few laps to see if he could help them find the problem.
He took the car out and soon had made up the half second. He brought it back in and said it felt pretty good to him and walked away. I asked the data guy who was telling me this story, so what is the punch line?
He said in the data he had from both runs, their drivers throttle “curve” looked like the Manhattan skyline. He was either on or off the throttle with no in-between. On Earnhardt’s curve, it was actually a curve. He rolled off the throttle and then rolled back on and that was worth a half a second in lap times. So, there ya go. I‘m sure Jimmie Johnson knows something about throttle control too.
Brake Bias Tech
Good morning,
My name is Dan and I’m building a pro stock dirt car. I’m on the brake system right now and I had a friend help who has been at this for several years of building and racing cars. When he put the pedal assembly together he put together a Wilwood pedal and master cylinder.
The front master cylinder bore is 7/8ths and the rear is 1″. He also attached a 10lb residual check valve to both the front and rear MC’s. I installed a pressure gauge for bias adjustment to know exactly how much pressure is front and rear. When trying to adjust to mostly rear brake the best I can get is equal pressure front and rear.
With the balance bar in neutral position I have more front brake. Should I have both MC bore sizes the same to be able to adjust my bias better from front to rear? Also with the 10lb residual check valve, I know those are designed for drum brakes not disc.
After talking to my friend, he said with the 2lb there was too much pedal travel. My concern is there will be too much brake drag and heat the brakes up too much. Should I change back to a 2lb or stay at the 10lb. Also, the master cylinders are above the horizontal plane of the calipers.
Thank you, Dan Wilson
Dan,
Your main problem is the master cylinder size, they are backwards. If you want more rear brake, switch the masters and put the smaller one on the rear brake side. The smaller size bore develops more line pressure with equal foot pressure.
I’m not sure about the residual check valve, but if they are made for drum brakes, they might not be a good idea for an asphalt car. You can ask your Wilwood brake distributor and they will help you decide if you need that.
As to the location of the master cylinders above the calipers, a good bleeding of the brake lines will clear any air, no matter where the masters are located. Maybe you have air in your lines and that is why you have so much pedal travel.
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