Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

I noticed there were additional top bars on the midget Tony drove last night, 7/12.  Is this something the owner added or have certain chassis makers started adding these?

Any chance we will see something like this on sprinters?  Seems like a good idea to improve head protection, along with a taller cage.

I would post a picture but can't figure how to get it done.  Speed Sport does have a picture.

http://speedsport.com/sprints-midgets/other-midgets/stewart-goes-home-umra-tq-victory/  

here ya go...right click on the picture to copy.  come back to this page.  do you see the "LINK" icon in the same box above, left of the flag?  click there and paste the copied link into the "url" box and there ua' have it.  how I complete it anyway, hope it helps...

Ascot was the greatest of all time..

West Capital wasn't half bad either..

Life is good...

Thanks, I appreciate the info!

Here's a pic for you.

Guys have mostly been adding bars above the driver in the event of them getting upside down and another car striking them on top of the cage. For years there have been conflicting reports that those bars actually make the upper cage area to stiff and if you were to say come down square on top of the cage that it may be ugly. This is the reason why chassis manufactures won't put that bar in.

I noticed similar bars and halos on some of the wingless sprint cars at recent B.O.S.S show. I wish they would make them mandatory.

There's no good reason to not have something like that on top.  And a left side safety bar.  And a rock screen.  And a few other lost cost options that could potentially save you from getting hurt.  But drivers, especially top level guys, apparently think some of that stuff hurts the performance of the car, whether it be extra weight or flex or whatever.  If it's not mandatory many aren't going to add it.  We've mandated a few things for crowd safety and some for driver safety but not nearly enough in my opinion.  We can call them freak accidents and say that's just part of the risk but if BC and some other guys had some sort of halo bars would they still be with us?  

Tony Beaber at Beaberbuilt runs a bar system that is similar. He also will weld them onto cars for customers. Here is an example. 

Any additional bars or bar system, whatever the description, has to also have driver exit as a key feature in the design as well as added safety. No big deal if getting in takes a contortionist or a little more effort on the driver's part, but drivers exiting or especially being extracated can hardly stand anything more to complicate it than there already is when speed in exiting is needed. In both pictures shown here, looks like that was kept in mind with each design, with the top being the exit in particular for an immobilized driver. Common exits anyway on midgets and sprint cars running with no wings. 

This was going to be my point.  Egress needs to be considered with a halo.  Simple solution (and one that Kevin Swindell and Daryn Pittman have advocated for) is to make sure the bars towards the front of the cage are spread apart enough to allow for exit / extraction.  DD had a bolt on halo system (never seen a bolt on one) before he ran Eastern Storm and the front of the bars were not far enough apart.  Not sure if it was USAC or DD who decided it wouldn't work and he kept one bar on and took one off.  Did not allow for proper exit. 

     I've always wondered why a bar with a spring wouldn't work. Imagine a fat safety bar above the driver's head running left to right. On the left side the  bar would be down tight onto the top of the roll cage. On the right the bar would be hinged onto the top of the roll cage. A spring of some sort would keep the safety bar pushed tight against the top of the roll cage.  Any car hitting the cage straight on from directly above the driver's head would smack into the fat safety bar. To get out, or to get a driver out, simply push up on the fat safety bar. It would hinge on the right and the left side would lift up.

     It would be kind of  like opening a trap door.  Imagine a screen door or a clipboard mechanism, same general theory. It shouldn't take that much spring tension. The same type of fat safety bar could be used on the sides of the cockpit. 

The BOSS actually lost the sanctioning for the Sprintacular at Eldora because they wouldn't mandate that all drivers had to have a halo. They said that they didn't feel it was right to force drivers to put something in their cars if the drivers felt it may be potentially less safe because of it. I'd have to dig very deep in the internet to find it but the article is somewhere.

It amazes me how much bullcrap people will post with no evidence to facts.
Boss isn't mandating a full containment, haans or five dutz wheel covers.  There is no rule to have a halo.  They've been running without em all year at Eldora.

As someone else posted, Tony Beaber ran a halo about 17 years ago up till about five years ago when they totalled the car at Eldora.. I also seen Charlie Fisher run one in the 90s

Recently cars have been using a simular halo.  Joshua Burton was killed at Bloomington when two cars his included flipped together. A shock or some object came in and hit Josh    Joe Devin at DRC will even put them on his DRC chassis if you request them. 

Me personally I like the head clearance that Hawk Chassis gives.  Cooper Clouse is 6'7" and still sits about 10 inches below the top of the back of the cage.

for pictures right click on picture, (not on this forum) right click to copy.

come back to post and find ctrl (lower key board far left) and the letter V.  press both down at 

the same time and......wait for it............................majic appears.  hope this helps, not bad for

a 70 year old turn four junkie eh?

Ascot was the greatest of all time..

West Capital wasn't half bad either..

Life is good...

numerous shots are just for fun...

Ascot was the greatest of all time..

West Capital wasn't half bad either..

Life is good...

I had said myself that they didn't require the halos. Here is the quote directly from the Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series Facebook book page post on January 15th 2017. I thought that the halo specifically was what had cost them the one event but I could very well be wrong on that, it probably was a combination of the rules they don't require drivers to have. So it wasn't just bullcrap I'd like to say. Here's proof that it did cost them a race. I'll concede it may not have specifically been the halos but for some reason that one bit stuck out in my mind. (If you'd like to see the full post, including season schedule release I've posted the link below, just copy and past to URL)

"In addition, the BOSS rules will once again allow teams to choose their own safety initiatives. As in the past, BOSS has chosen NOT to REQUIRE full containment seats, head and neck restraints, or roll cage halos. Although this decision cost us one event in 2017, we feel it is our job to provide a safe racing environment along with excellent insurance and more than adequate rescue and emergency personnel. It is NOT our position to REQUIRE items that many in our industry still see as a potential threat to driver safety. At this level of professional competition, we assert that driver safety is up to each individual team and driver."

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1354047124666667&id=121287107942681

Anything with a hinge or pivot on it would be vulnerable to getting bent in a crash and not opening. I have a halo on top like the bieber thing and side bars on the left and right but I would be really scared to have anything with a hinge or pivot that could possibly bend and trap me in the car. 

Stewarts bars seem pretty well thought out. See those allot at Wilmot in the wingless as well.....but I would be more concerned with something like this (Beabers) weakening the cage above the driver in the event of a flip (kink point where the front of that halo attaches to the middle of the upper cage tubes) or even more realistically, getting caught on the wall or hit by another car, and tearing the cage apart. That is just one large blunt edge hanging up there, to get caught on. I would go without a halo before considering that option. jmo

I saw someone mentioned Charlie Fisher's car from the 90s. If I remember correctly he built a car with a top fuel dragster sort of roll cage rather that welding in a halo. It was something totally different from what I had seen before or have seen since.

We can always get better but we have definitely come a long way in safety, especially in the last 10-15 years. I believe this pic is from the late 70s but even in the 90s the cockpit of a sprint car looked very similar to this and they ran some badass fast places especially the usac pavement cars (for example Richmond where the average speed was like 130). It really is a wonder that we didn't lose more drivers than we did.