Being safe during cool down laps

[Al Fernandez]

This past weekend I was having a discussion with a couple of you (who shall rename nameless!) about NOT undoing safety gear during cool down laps. I stressed that shit happens on cool down laps, seen it before, dont undo any of your gear.

This past weekend at Infineon there was a very serious wreck on the cooldown. The guy in the yellow Porsche drove under the safety truck that is also in the picture. Notice the rear axle on the safety truck is pushed forward at an angle; it is out of comission. The Porsche driver has spent several days in the hospital, but I understand doctors are expecting a full recovery.

Please do not let your guard down on cool down or warmup laps, its still a hot track! And please do not undo any of the gear you paid good money to keep you safe in the event of shit happening.

[ShadowBolt]

You could be talking to me. I always drop the window net on the cool down lap. I will leave it up in the future.


JJ

[AI#97]

You could be talking to me. I always drop the window net on the cool down lap. I will leave it up in the future.


JJ

Same here!

I will pose the question though of how in the hell do you run up the ass of a safety truck on the cool down lap??? Good Grief!!!

[AllZWay]

I sometimes take my gloves off, but that is all.

[Al Fernandez]

I know, its always harmless stuff...drop the net, take the gloves off, undo the helmet strap...all that stuff is there for a reason: the net to keep shit out of the driver's compartment, the gloves in the event of a fire, and lets not even talk about unstrapping a helmet!

Its sort of a pet peeve of mine I guess...but the coincidence is uncanny.

My understanding is one car (maybe not the wrecked one) was still going pretty fast and two cars ended up going over a crest side by side and one of the two locked up the brackes and slid into the safety truck.

[cobra132]

Excellent advice. Thanks. FMR

[mitchntx]

If we have to stop on course, we are encouraged to remain in the car, in full safety gear until a corner worker or safety crew arrives. From there, it's the call of the track workers.

A cool down lap is really no different.

Having said that, I typically loosen the shoulder straps and drop the window net.

Precaution taken under advisement ... good post, Al.

[NASA13]

Wow.
I usually get out of my seat and go to the back for coffee. I wont be doing that anymore, my autopilot is good, but geeez.

[Fbody383]

My understanding is one car (maybe not the wrecked one) was still going pretty fast and two cars ended up going over a crest side by side and one of the two locked up the brakes and slid into the safety truck.

Cool down, huh? If they're side by side giving a single digit message, thumbs up or otherwise, okay, but don't jockey to the next corner... that you can't see over the rise.

Al, this is a great lesson for us new guys to take to heart as well.

[oz98cobra]

Good post Al.

I probably shouldn't, but I often remove safety gear on the cooldown lap at DEs - especially if I am in the passenger seat and need to debrief the student on the way back to the pits - but I NEVER do this in a race car.

It is not too much of a stretch to imagine a hot race car catching fire on the cool down lap, so the gloves and lid stay on!

The accident pictured poses some interesting questions - like what the hell was the safety truck doing on the track on the cool down lap in the first place - and was an appropriate flag indicating safety vehicle on track shown to drivers. As Al says, the track is still hot, it's just under yellow - but cars can still be moving reasonably fast, and often one car will move up beside another to congratulate as Matt and I did after Sunday's race. Drivers are also often further distracted as they are waving at corner workers as we are always encouraged to do.

Seems to me that there is a lesson here for track and safety officials as well - drivers may be less aware on the cool down lap than during a race, so unless there is an accident or fire, safety vehicles should NOT be allowed on the racing surface until the last car has passed!

Al I trust you will ensure NASA Texas is aware of this befoe next season :)

[Waco Racer]

If I see any driver coming off of the track without all of you safety equipment on and in place you will be yelled at. That is a big no-no. We can monitor cars coming off track better at some tracks better than others. If you get away with it once, don't take that as an OK to do it again. If you forget and do it and we don't catch you, pretend someone yelled at you. If you do it again there will be penalties handed out.

Unless it is an emergency our EVs don't enter the track until the last car in session passes their station. We will do hot track extractions and the corner stations are instructed to flag appropriately. We have "fired" some corner workers due to their lack of participation during a race weekend. If there is ever any doubts or concerns about course conditions or corner workers please bring it to our attention immediately. You can contact me, Adrian, Chris, Todd, Kevin, Country, or any official with a radio. Ask them to contact me on the Admin channel and I will deal with the situation right then. For those that don't know or haven't met Chris Cornwell, he is our Chief Operating Steward, new for 2007. He does an outstanding job keeping track of the corner workers and situations on track.

[Todd Covini]

I had to talk to a few racers at Nationals about this.
The corner workers at M-O were calling them in.
It's a definate no-no.
Thanks for the sobering reminder, Al.

-=- Todd