Speed News Vol. 1 Issue 3 : Page 56

PASS OR FAIL — Story and Photos by Rob Krider How To Survive The Annual Tech Inspection R 56 acecar drivers, in order to shave two seconds off a lap time, have no problem spending $500 on a set of tires that will last only one race. However, if you ask them to spend a similar amount on a new helmet because it may help them survive a crash, they will hesitate and wonder why when their helmet is, by the rules, good until 2015. It’s because of this speed-is-the-priority mentality that sanc-tioning bodies require cars to undergo stringent technical safety inspections. The tech inspection process is not meant to be adversarial. NASA has an annual tech inspection program because they actually care about their drivers. Simply put, tech is there to keep you as safe as possible in a sport that has its share of dangers. The ﬁ rst step to successfully get a racecar through the tech-nical inspection process is to know the rules. Knowledge is power, but racers are also often impatient. They like to go fast and they like to be in the front. That means they don’t like to sit around and do boring stuff like… well, read. Especially when what they need to be reading is a rule-book they thumbed through a few years back. Regardless of their previous knowledge of dated rules, things change and, in order to be abreast of the latest and greatest advances in driver protection, competitors need to know the rules. NASA makes it easy. Their rules are available in PDF format from the national Web site: www.nasaproracing.com. “We are sticklers when it comes to safety,” says Bette Dragoun. She and husband Tom own 7s Only Racing and have been racing and inspecting cars for NASA out of their shop at Buttonwillow Raceway Park for a dozen years. They have seen every-thing you could imagine come into their shop “inspection ready,” such as cars with roll cages made with exhaust tubing and seatbelts held in place by duct tape. Yes, that really happened, they say. As Tom and Bette inspected a couple of cars we brought over, we found out the hard way that she stands by her words. Here are a few

Pass Or Fail Surviving tech- How To Survive The Annual Tech Inspection

Rob Krider

Racecar drivers, in order to shave two seconds off a lap time, have no problem spending $500 on a set of tires that will last only one race. However, if you ask them to spend a similar amount on a new helmet because it may help them survive a crash, they will hesitate and wonder why when their helmet is, by the rules, good until 2015. It’s because of this speed-is-the-priority mentality that sanctioning bodies require cars to undergo stringent technical safety inspections. The tech inspection process is not meant to be adversarial. NASA has an annual tech inspection program because they actually care about their drivers. Simply put, tech is there to keep you as safe as possible in a sport that has its share of dangers. The first step to successfully get a racecar through the technical inspection process is to know the rules. Knowledge is power, but racers are also often impatient. They like to go fast and they like to be in the front. That means they don’t like to sit around and do boring stuff like… well, read. Especially when what they need to be reading is a rulebook they thumbed through a few years back. Regardless of their previous knowledge of dated rules, things change and, in order to be abreast of the latest and greatest advances in driver protection, competitors need to know the rules. NASA makes it easy. Their rules are available in PDF format from the national Web site: www.nasaproracing.com. “We are sticklers when it comes to safety,” says Bette Dragoun. She and husband Tom own 7s Only Racing and have been racing and inspecting cars for NASA out of their shop at Buttonwillow Raceway Park for a dozen years. They have seen everything you could imagine come into their shop “inspection ready,” such as cars with roll cages made with exhaust tubing and seatbelts held in place by duct tape. Yes, that really happened, they say. As Tom and Bette inspected a couple of cars we brought over, we found out the hard way that she stands by her words. Here are a few things that come up during an annual inspection and a couple of tips to ensure your car is legal for the series and as safe as possible. Harnesses Driver’s harnesses come equipped with date tags for a reason. The belts in one of the cars were manufactured in January 2010. The car was inspected in February 2012. Who cares? NASA does. In the Club Rules and Regulations (CCRs), Competition Section, Rule 15.5 Driver Restraint System, subsection 10-A, it says that all belts should meet “SFI specification 16.1 or 16.5 and shall bear a dated label of no more than two (2) years old.” or the relevant FIA specs. The belts in this car were SFI rated and expired, therefore the log book would not be signed and the car didn’t pass inspection. Whoops. Maybe we should have read the rulebook again before we towed the car all the way to Buttonwillow. Epic fail! Cage Because the 7s Only shop is located at Buttonwillow Raceway Park, Tom and Bette Dragoun are there to see what happens on a race track when things don’t go right. “We take a look at the cars out here after they have been in an accident,” said Bette. “Because of what we’ve seen over the years, we go overboard on safety.” So they inspect every weld on the cage carefully. Just because tubes are close together and joints are in a hard-to-reach place doesn’t mean you get a pass on welding the tube all the way around. NASA inspectors look specifically at these spots to ensure that the welds are 360 degrees. Any hole or unfinished weld will be a fail. “I couldn’t get to that spot” is not an acceptable excuse. In fact, you may have to cut off your roof to finish some welding. Don’t worry though; Tom at 7s Only Racing will be more than happy to finish welding the cage for you. Just bring your credit card. Side Net NASA requires that all racecars have either a right-side net or a seat equipped with a head restraint feature. Both of these will help restrain a driver in their seat and limit head movement during a side impact. Although the seat mounted devices are fairly straightforward, the placement of the right-side net has caused a lot of confusion for some drivers. Bette says the key to having the net correctly installed is to place it so that it not only keeps the driver’s head from moving to the right but also captures the driver’s shoulder. Section 15.17.9 of the NASA CCR has a great diagram that illustrates where the net should be placed. Kill Switch Kill switches are recommended for all racecars and required in some NASA series. The important thing to know about these switches is that there are two types. The two-post negative battery cable switches that are common on most drag racing cars do not satisfy the rules in the NASA regulations. Because of the vehicle’s alternator, once the engine is running, if you switch off a two-post negative battery cable switch, the car will not die. You need to install a four-post switch that incorporates both the large negative ground wires from the battery and a smaller ignition wire that actually kills the ignition. During an annual inspection they will have you start the car and actually test this switch to ensure it shuts off the car. Fuel Cell Fuel cell bladders and the foam inside the cells are similar to racing harnesses and helmets in that they are not certified forever. If you add a fuel cell to your car, make sure you keep the paperwork that comes with it. Don’t just toss it in the trash with the shipping paperwork and instructions like you do with every other box that shows up at your doorstep. Fire Extinguisher Everybody knows that a racecar needs to have a fire extinguisher, but not everybody knows the proper way to mount one. Sheet metal screws through the floor pan are not what NASA is looking for (and neither are you during a crash, when that heavy fire extinguisher comes loose and becomes a heavy, fast-moving projectile). Use nuts, bolts and backing plates to ensure the extinguisher won’t come loose. Another tip is to use the double-strap mounting bracket to make sure that chunk of metal doesn’t fly off and end up under your brake pedal. Bette suggests purchasing a larger extinguisher (bigger than the two-pound minimum) because in the summer the dry weeds in the runoff area, or hay bales at tracks shared with motorcycles, can easily catch fire and burn your pride and joy to the ground. A bigger extinguisher will give you a better chance to fight the fire around your car. Number and Class Designation In addition to safety, the annual inspection ensures your car is ready for competition in other ways and includes several items from the CCRs. For example, your class lettering is required to be 4 inches in height so that it can be read by corner workers and timing and scoring when you’re at speed. Often, class designation tends to be a last-minute detail that drivers forget to take care of. You don’t want to be one of those drivers that has an illegible “E3” on the side of your car made with electrical tape. Log book Pass inspection, and your car will earn a log book. Without one, you aren’t racing. Every annual inspection and every race you compete in should be listed in this book, keeping a history of the car. I’d tell you to keep in it the glove box, but most of us got rid of that while building our racecars. Best practice is to have a binder for your car where you can keep important documents like this. This binder is a great place to keep your fuel cell certification documentation and other safety equipment information as well. We left 7s Only Racing with one car through tech and one car that needed a new set of belts. This experience taught us that you don’t want to wait to have your annual inspection done until the morning of your first race weekend of the year. The best thing to do is to find a shop that is designated as a NASA tech inspection location and make an appointment a few weeks prior to your first race of the year to avoid those costly, “I NEED THIS SMMEDIATELY! YES I’LL PAY FOR OVERNIGHT SHIPPING FROM CHILE!” moments. Every racer sooner or later has paid $60 to overnight ship a $5 part. Replacing our expired belts would be all it took to get our car back into action and I really appreciated Bette and Tom Dragoun’s advice. After all, they are only trying to keep us safe. SN

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