Someone asked for statistics on Vintage Racing vs. street driving. I have
no data. But relative to a heart attack it seems like even odds.
In the 11 years I have been racing on the Right Coast, I can remember 6
deaths in vintage. Three were from heart attacks. Two were from unsafe
track conditions (tree and light pole) and one might have been from driving
with "loosened belts". That means 50-50 odds on heart attack. I have lost
two vintage racing friends to road accidents, most recently David Whiteside,
but surely there have been others I don't know about.
The heart attacks were unpreventable, not so the fatal accidents. I no
longer drive at Summit Point or Moroso and I snug up my Simpson belts tight
as I can and change them every three years (I believe that Simpson suggests
new webbing every year). I always wear a neck collar and the HANS device
order blank is filled in, but not mailed yet. www.hansdevice.com
I have often looked with concern at how my lap belts go through the slots in
my Kirkey seat. The lower metal adjuster loop is just outside the opening.
I have often wondered if they might undo themselves if the seat moved to the
left suddenly. I also wonder if the sewn together loop could catch on the
edge of the slot and rip itself apart. I will not be surprised if this
turns out to be the culprit in Dale's failure. I know he had his seat
farther back and more in the center of the car than most, which left more
room for the seat and the supporting structure to move to the left.
While on the subject, we learned a lot from Clifford Allison's death a few
years back in NASCAR. He impacted the wall with the back of his car and the
seat tilted sharply back which released slack in his belts and allowed his
body to become free inside the car. We sedan racers took a close look at
where we mounted the shoulder straps and most of us changed the mounting
position and also built a brace from the cage to the back of the seat. Most
of us had already taken a cue from NASCAR and mounted our seats to a welded
structure that moved with the cage, rather than mounting to the floor, as
protection from side impact.
Be very careful out there,
Pat Ryan
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