This feature - Driver safety.

Speedway has always been filled with thrills and spills. There is only so much room on such a small track, and when you place a field of twenty open wheel cars onto it - accidents happen. In this article, we will take a look at the safety features put in place to protect the drivers.

Racing suits.
One of the biggest threats to a driver in any motorsport is fire. A modern speedway driver is well equiped to withstand up to forty seconds of fire should he or she be trapped in the car. Most of today's suits are made of a combination of fireproof fibres and wool. Stevie's suit is a tripple layer Aramid fibre suit. Underneath the suit Stevie also wears one layer of fireproof underwear. In total this gives Stevie approximately 40 seconds of 'burn time'. This is ample amount given that the safety crews are normally on the scene within 15 seconds (see the crash video...). For more of a look at these items view what Stevie wears.

Helmet.
Helmets are probably the single most important aspect of a driver's safety. Before each speedway driver is allowed on track, the helmet must pass a check by a speedway official (safety scrutineer). Helmet technology has improved massively over the last two decades, with such features as bullet proof visors, and flameproof lining now being the norm. Stevie's helmet is a Bell M-3 (Car model), made from Kevlar with a flameproof inner lining and conforming to the highest standards set by the Snell safety foundation.

Arm Restraints.
Another part of the body that is exposed in the event of a rollover, is the driver's arms. Often the centrifugal forces involved in rolling a car are great enough to pull the drivers arms off the steering wheel and force them to spread open outside of the cage. This is where arm restraints come in to the safety mix. The restraints are anchored to the saftey belts (around the buckle area) at one end, and the drivers arms at the other (either just above or just below the elbow).

Shoulder Strap
The shoulder strap is a small clip and strap device. It's purpose is to restrict the movement of the drivers head while cornering. As the g-forces involved in speedway are quite high, support is often needed (especially in longer races) to stop the drivers neck from tiring. The strap forms a loop around the drivers left shoulder (under the arm) and is clipped to the helmet thus restricting head movement.

Seat belts.
Stevie is strapped into the car with a five-point racing harness, capable of withstanding huge momentary loadings in the event of a crash. The belts have a latch type system which includes two buckles, one for the waist area, and one for the sternum. This gives extra protection against the possibility of the shoulder belts sliding off the shoulders during an accident, and also provides protection against the driver being 'spread' by the belts (shoulders can be pulled backward - straining the chest area) during a hard impact with the wall or ground.

Cage Nets.
Rolling a speedway car is a violent thing, and often the forces involved are much higher than they appear. Watching from the stands, rollovers can even appear graceful. Being inside the car is a different story....

When a rollover occurs the driver's head can often move outside the protection of the rollover cage, thus exposing the driver to greater risk of injury. To stop this from happening, most drivers run their cars with cage nets. The nets are mounted from behind the diver's head (close to the top of the seat), and stretch all the way to the main cage bars at the front of the cockpit. Most drivers run with at least one cage net (normally on the outside - as that is the side that is more likely to contact the concrete wall), but many run with the nets on both sides.

Knee Guard.
Due to the confined space that a speedway driver has to work in, the driver's knees can often come into contact with some of the components inside the cockpit (such as the steering box). To guard against knee injury, we run a knee protector that shrouds the steering box casing and provides padding for the knee caps.

Cockpit Grill.
Crashing is not the only danger in speedway. There are other potential hazards such as flying stones or debris kicked up by other cars. The most exposed area of the driver in this instance, is the head. Many drivers have stories to tell about being hit by things such as nurf bars and shock absorbers. To keep this from happening, we run a steel grill at the front of the cockpit. The mesh is strong enough to stop car components or large chunks of mud/clay, but is spaced enough to stop mud building up at the front of the cockpit - thus blocking the drivers view.

The Seat.
The seat in a speedway car is specifically designed for optimum comfort whilst providing support for the drivers torso. Seats come in an array of shapes and sizes but most have one thing in common - rib cage support. The seats all have at least one wrap-around area for the driver's ribs. This stops the driver's torso from shifting in an accident. Stevie runs with a double wrap-around seat which has protection on both the left and right hand side. The seat is much smaller than an ordinary seat in a family car as it is designed to restrict movement of the upper body (a family car seat is designed almost exclusively for comfort reasons). Another feature of the seat is the head rest. Only used on the right hand side of the seat, it's purpose is to provide support in the event of contact with the concrete wall (but is also used as a head rest if the driver's neck gets sore with constant cornering forces).

Steering wheel.
The steering wheel probably doesn't spring into your mind when thinking of driver safety, but in reality it plays a very important role in the whole process. Should a driver require removal from the car by safety personal, the steering wheel can be easily removed by pulling a safety lock-pin, thus givng the safety crew greater room to extricate the driver. As back and neck injuries are always a possibility, it is imperative that the driver can be removed with the minimum of movement. The removal of the steering wheel helps in achieving this (in most cases the cockpits of these cars are so small that the driver needs to remove the wheel to get out of the car in normal circumstances).

And of course the Crash Crew.
Many accidents over the years could have been much worse if not for the intervention of the top-notch crash crew that attends the Western Springs Speedway meetings. These people are all dedicated volunteers who, at considerable risk to themselves, race to the scene of every accident to ensure that each and every driver is OK. It is comforting to know that help is normally no more than a few seconds away.

If you have any comments on this feature article, or questions you would like answered, please e-mail us.