Speed News Vol. 1 Issue 3 : Page 59
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 sim-ilar to racing harnesses and helmets in that they are not certifi ed 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. mounting bracket to make sure that chunk of metal doesn’t fl y off and end up under your brake pedal. Bette suggests purchasing a larger extinguisher (bigger than the two-pound min-imum) because in the summer the dry weeds in the runoff area, or hay bales at tracks shared with motorcycles, can easily catch fi re and burn your pride and joy to the ground. A bigger extinguisher will give you a better chance to fi ght the fi re around your car. 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 impor-tant documents like this. This binder is a great place to keep your fuel cell certifi ca-tion 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 inspec-tion done until the morning of your fi rst race weekend of the year. The best thing to do is to fi nd a shop that is designated as a NASA tech inspection location and make an appointment a few weeks prior to your fi rst race of the year to avoid those costly, “I NEED THIS STUFF IMME-DIATELY! 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 59 Number and Class Designation In addition to safety, the annual inspection ensures your car is ready for com-petition 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 Everybody knows that a you’re at speed. Often, class racecar needs to have a fi re designation tends to be a last-extinguisher, but not every-minute detail that drivers body knows the proper way forget to take care of. You to mount one. Sheet metal don’t want to be one of those screws through the fl oor pan drivers that has an illegible are not what NASA is looking “E3” on the side of your car for (and neither are you during made with electrical tape. a crash, when that heavy fi re extinguisher comes loose and becomes a heavy, fast-moving Pass inspection, and your projectile). Use nuts, bolts car will earn a log book. and backing plates to ensure Without one, you aren’t racing. the extinguisher won’t come Every annual inspection and loose. Another tip is to use the double-strap every race you compete in Fire Extinguisher Log book
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