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

I found this on http://www.ibracn.com/rumors_news.html

Track owners and promoters need to pay attention to this!!!!!!!

Make sure you have the proper safety equipment on site. A couple of extinguishers and a couple of people don't make a safety crew. You need at least 6 to 8 trained firefighters with the proper gear and the right equipment to protect the drivers.

I could go on........................................... Please do the right thing and make sure you have the right equipment ON SITE.

Driver's you need to demand the track owners and promoters provide a properly trained and equiped Safety Crew!



DRIVER SEVERELY BURNED - (7-1-09 @ 7:30 am) - FACT - Last Friday night, a horrible accident occurred to a micro midget driver that is inexcusable. The Kearney, NE man (Tony Linner) was driving his micro midget when the accident occurred at Kam Raceway in Hastings, Nebraska. After the accident was complete, Linner took off his helmet but shortly there after, the punctured tail tank caught fire and erupted in flames. His gloves melted to the seat belt latch leaving the driver stuck in the burning car for 5 minutes. There was no safety crew, no fire extinguishers available, and no help for this driver. Linner struggled to free himself. One driver (Kevin Hulse, former Nebraska sprint car driver) ran to his aid to try to do something but was unable to free the driver. Linner finally broke free and got out of the car and rolled around on the ground to smother the flames. He was taken to the hospital and now is fighting for his life in the burn unit in Lincoln, NE with burns over 90% of his body. This is a terrible accident with a terrible ending and could have been avoided with a proper equipped safety crew. It is terrible that there was no safety crew, let alone no fire extinguishers available. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Tony Linner and family. Read the Kearney Hub story HERE.

I guess this is proof that the purpose of Doug Wolfgang's law suit has failed yet again.

I heard both praise and criticism of the fire fighters in this incident from back in 97. Something to learn from. I do know the officials were heroes!

Jeff Kristensen

There is no excuse for it, none... not from the track, nor the drivers who chose to participate without so much as a fire extinguisher available.

I grew up at the track like a lot of you, and it was way before fuel cells and all that safety stuff, and I saw way more than a kid should. When I go to a new track it's still something I look for, alway's, and that would be how many extinguishers and where they are. For the life of me, I don't see how that could have happened. Why in the hell didn't someone step up?

I remember on Thunder when Gary Bettenhausen's fuel pump got knocked off when the engine blew, and the fire was between his legs. After he bailed out with the car still rolling, he got up and ran. I thought that he was panicked or something, but no. He had made a mental note of where there was some water down in the corner from the rain the night before, and he plopped down and started sloshing water up between his legs.

Kenny

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

Unacceptable

I tell you what, reading this pisses me off. Personally that track needs to be shutdown, if they can't have the right safety equipment and safety personel.

I am out here in Washington, and I have been to a Elma, Skagit, Evergreen Speedway, and down in Oregon I been to Lebanon and Cottage Grove, and all of them tracks have awesome firecrews.

My dad was injured in a crash in 2005, at Grays Harbor Raceway, the night before the WoO during a Northern Sprint Tour race, took a hard tumble, and there was no fire, but that fire crew got to him very fast, and put all their hard work into getting my dad out of the car, and did it with care, but were quick at doing it.

This deal here in Nebraska should of been avoided and is very unacceptable.

Thoughts and prayers with Tony Linner and his family.

Check out Grays Harbor Raceway and ASCS Northwest 
Region videos at www.youtube.com/ARRacingVideos 

Sad to hear. You think after Wolfgang that it would be common knowledge now.

I use to give my roommate crap for them not wearing suits in derby cars. They have the gas in the back seat with airplane fuel too. Said it was no big deal. Sure enough a guy burst into flames and 7 seconds later he comes diving onto the hood with his shirt on fire. Idiot people. If you are in any kind of car and you are not on the streets any more then you damn well better have safety equipemnt in place.

-----------------------------------------------------
A healthy diet of dirt in my nachos and beer.

a very similar and equally unacceptable incident occured early last year at a micro race at I 44 Speedway in Oklahoma City. A young girl named Harli White had to fight for her life afterwards as well. And after much PT and skin grafts too (i believe) - she won the battle and is even back racing Restrictors on the ASCS2 circuit and weekly at I-44. Both her equipment and the tracks equipment was under much scrutiny for a length of time. And whereas a greater tragedy was averted - it should not have taken such a horrific crash to open the eyes of the regional racing community.

And I should mention btw - that greater tragedy was only averted thanks to a fellow driver - one that is currently out on the ASCS National Tour trail - named Donny Ray Crawford.

How much would could a wouldchuck chuck if a 
wouldchuck could chuck would

That is unheard of and ridiculous. I live out in Washington State also and the fire safety crew out here is great which is good to have for the safety of the drivers. Here is video of them from the Ascs Nw Region season finale over in Yakima when Colton Heath's car caught fire after flipping.

www.youtube.com/princen17
http://www.facebook.com/pages/NSP-Racing-
Videos/115495605204499

Dirt Late Model magazine had an awesome article an issue or two back about safety crews at tracks that put them into 3 categories and explained the requirements by law. I thought it was very well researched and written and really applied to all forms of racing. Maybe someone at Three Wide Media could make it available on here for everyone to read. Some of it I knew from the many different tracks I go to, but some of it was extremely eye opening.

The Mermaid

For those of you who are on Facebook, here's a link to the support group for Tony.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=101312346645

If you have the ability, please help out.

I am lucky enough to work at one of the best tracks 
anywhere.

Dang this is a horrible thing to see...We had a driver last week that blew a oil line and was on fire... Our driver unbuckeled got out,took off his gloves batted out the fire on his own then the fire truck got there...Another quick job...Hope all goes well for Tony and he pulls threw w/ flying colors...

Does anybody know if there was a bladder cell in these cars?...

Unfortunately it was a wet fuel cell i.e. no bladder

Our prayers go out to this family.

Safety is so important and training is the key. Has anyone ever really watched the safety people at knoxville, Eldora, and Williams Grove. They don't care if there is a race going on or not if a car starts flipping they are heading for it. It scared me the first time I saw a safety crew on the track and the green still out. These guys are awesome and if my daughter is ever in a bad crash again, I hope a safety crew like that is at the track.

Way to many times the crew, and drivers are there first.

Here in Fort Worth the safety crew is good but they sit outside the track so if something happens they have to be called to the crash instead of being there first. At knoxville the safety guys are there before the cars in the crash quit moving.

Was just looking at the Facebook account, some of the pictures on there, are hard to look at, and I just can't believe what him, or the family is going through when it comes to injuries like this.

Its a very sad deal.

Check out Grays Harbor Raceway and ASCS Northwest 
Region videos at www.youtube.com/ARRacingVideos 

http://new.khastv.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=17685&storytopic=4

Listen to what the news reporter says at the end of the video

"Everything was according to code" You have got to be kidding.

Check out Grays Harbor Raceway and ASCS Northwest 
Region videos at www.youtube.com/ARRacingVideos 

Last season a young girl was severely burned in a micro race in Oklahoma. Her car's fuel tank didn't have a bladder. Her tank split during an incident and the fuel that was spilled ignited.

The incident created a national debate amoungst the micro folks. During the off-season many tracks and sanctions pushed for a bladder rule. This effort was met with resistence because of the expense of bladders.

The injured driver's fuel tank didn't have a bladder. Perhaps the local track decided not to go with a bladder rule. Despite their size micros are serious race cars. More sophisticated than a full sprint car in terms of technology.

Another problem with 600 micros is that they have electric fuel pumps. If a fuel line or the fuel injection or carbs are knocked off during a crash the pump is still working unless the driver turns it off.

Unfortunately, many of the tracks that run micros don't have the resources that some of larger tracks have. Some bearly make from week to week. It would be very difficult for them to have a full time safety crew outfitted in fireproof safety equipment.

I've been considering installing a fire suppression system on our midget. Here's a link to a story that appeared in Circle Track:

http://www.circletrack.com/safety/ctrp_0904_sprint_car_fire_extinguisher/index.html

This system was developed for openwheel cars. Unfortunately, I cannot find any additional information regarding the system.

Micro sprint racing is huge in Central PA. Many of the top young 410, URC and 358 drivers (Darrah, Leppo, Wolfe, Buckwalter, Marks etc. etc.) came out of the 600s. Lincoln had 94 cars at the 600 Speedweek show earlier this week. Most of those cars were local.

We got to make sure these guys are safe. This is where our future stars are coming from.

It should be required in ALL Micro/Mini-Sprint racing that you have a bladder, and have your system converted to methanol. The girl in Oklahoma had just a tail tank filled to the brim with gasoline, realistically only needed 2-3 gallons, if that. It sucks though because many organizations have low weight rules, so alot of drivers don't use bladders. Also alot of organizations have a HIGHER weight rule for running methanol, because it "gives a performance advantage".

Hey Kenny. Did that happen at Sacramento in a champ car? I remember seeing something like that also. Jimmy Sills won the race.

Kenny

Offy65, I was in the stands for that race too. I knew right away that he was on fire and why he was getting to the water. That was my first time seeing an open wheel race.

Cover your beer, the race is on!