Wreck at the Sandia Quad Regional

[Doug Welch]

Some of you may have heard about a major wreck during the quad regional at Sandia. During the morning practice session, two of the 60 novice drivers touched at very high speed. Both karts went flipping, one very violently. My youngest son, Greg was in that kart. The track was using part of the 1/2 mile oval and they were in 6th gear, flat out. About 80 mph.

You will be glad to know that after transport to the hospital, Greg has only a broken collar bone. However, the doctors told us that it is the most sevier break he has seen, three places, with one part disloged. It should heal with no problems but they do want us to have him checked this week to make sure. Greg is in good spirits, cracking jokes, and milking his injury for all he can get.

Somethings we learned. The safety gear worked. All sides of his helmet were scratched. The Rector neck brace held his head so he has no neck strain at all. No injuries to his head. His driving suit was torn all over, shoulders, back, legs, arms. Only one place came through, lower back toward his side. But a comment on driving suits. Most of the suits for karters have very little padding Most are single layer and a liner. My wife takes them apart and adds padding in the arms, legs and shoulder areas. If she had not done this to his suit, he would have suffered a great deal of road rash as the suit was torn in several places but did not go through the padding.

I would strongly recommend that you look at your suits to see how much additional padding it has in those critical places. I like the custom suits you can get from Stewart as you can order extra padding for a mininal cost.

Doug

[John Denman]

Doug,
Very sorry to hear this about anyone, especially in the youth classes. Thank God he wasn't injured worse.

I am very interested in learning more about suit padding enhancements. What materials, thicknesses and locations. This may be a science of undiscovered territory, and its the painful lessons like this we can learn from.

[Charlie Tackett]

Glad to hear the littel guy is doing ok.

It is potential for things as this as one of the main reasons Ted wears teh body armor under his suit. Several years ago when he hit the wall at Gateway and went over with the kart on top of him, it wore several small holes completely thru the suit, but he did not have one scratch or bruise on his upper body/arms at all. A piece of equipment well worth the investment and one of those things you never think you'll need until after you have an experience where you should have had one on.

DOug, you and the boys coming to Gingerman next month?

[Doug Welch]

Charlie,

Sorry but we will not be able to make the trip to Gingerman this year although we really like the track and the people. School is in session and with taking time off to do the world finals in September, the South Bend ameture(sp) championships in October and finally the SuperNationals in November, that is as much time off school as I think they can handle.

Maybe next year they can move the Gingerman race to the weekend after the Barrie race (we wouldn't miss that one for anything). We could do them both in a single trip and get to see the family.

Doug

[ddroger]

glad to hear the young man is OK. Milking the situation is a good indicator of rapid recovery!

Aerostich make excellent motorcycle riding gear with "memory" foam in critical areas. These suits are perennial favourits with motorcycle journalists, and there are lots of documented get-off where the padding has saved the buns. Look at www.aerostich.com . the suits are expensive, but the website illustrations can provide some good ideas for reworking your own suits. Motorcycle shops also sell padding kits, and I've used one of those to beef up riding gear with good results.

BTW - I've used my Aerostich suit for kart racing and it great! they are even waterproof.

Don Roger

[Rodney Ebersole]

Doug , glad he made out ok! I have been wanting to get a new suit and Armour, should I consider leather? Or would a good Stewart suit be better? Don, I'll check out aerostich also.

[Darren Swisher]

Doug, Glad to here his is ok.

Karting suits by nature are abrasions resistant suits but not all suits are made from the same materials. In the last few years’ drivers have been asking for more comfort and letting the abrasion aspect slide. Still today we have no real minimum safety standards to go by. I have been trying to get people interested in such an association when I started AKSES (association for Karting safety equipment standards) a few years back. Most thought I was just trying to make a buck by selling patches to Tested and certified products. So I back burnered it.

Things to look for:
1. Minimum 500-denier cordura.
2. Full body coverage
3. Reinforced wear areas, rear, elbows, shoulders, knees, forearms, ribs, and upper back.
4. Possible padding( not soft foam but harder density armor foam) within critical wear areas
5. Look for areas that may snag like Belts and epaulettes.
6. Top stitched seams
7. Fit, not to loose

FIA certification: I think this certification is a start but many suits under 500 denier pass, this is not acceptable to me. We need more stringent minimum certifications.
SFI certification: same as above.

My 2 cents

Darren Swisher
Shifter Safety Gear

[Glenn Holland]

Good to hear Greg will be okay.

One thing that popped into my head when reading the post was "why are 60cc Novices going 80mph?"

Just a question.

[Doug Welch]

Darren

I can tell you that the wreck occured in front of some very important peole with SKUSA. We had a discussion about suits and the need for improvements as we have no minimum standards like we do for helmets. I think they will be more interested as I push them on this.

Doug

[Tom Stephens]

quote:

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Originally posted by Charlie Tackett:
...one of the main reasons Ted wears teh body armor under his suit...

---

Charlie, what are you referring to re: the armor?

Tom Stephens www.kartfinder.com

[Mark Schmidt]

Glad to hear you son is okay. As a dad with a son going to be in a cadet kart next year, the suit information is of great improtance to me. I spent the money for a Sparco and had enhanced padding added. Only place I could find that offered this for Sparco was in Europe. Cost a little more but I have had one skid on the track and it weather it great. If stewart does this they may be my US option for my son.

I agree driving suits have long be over looked for safety enhancement. I hope you get all the right buttons pushed to have a requirment of minimum psafety padding put in them.

Again I am glad he will be back at the track in the future driving.

[Glenn Holland]

I can tell you when EKN's Brian Stiver had his bad wreck at Irwindale, his suit (Sparco) provided excellent protection. I was toast, since they had to cut it off of him, but he didn't have so much as a raspberry.

The armor and padding are definitely ideas worth investigating.

I'd hate to see what would happen to someone wearing jeans and a jacket, which are still legal with many sactioning bodies.

G.

[Charlie Tackett]

Glenn, I have a picture on a CD which shows some of Ted's body armor. Any way to post it somewhere for people to check out?

[Ronnie Swyers]

Charlie,
I'm always open to posting technical stuff on my site. But I think a page on technical safety gear on EKN would be great
Ronnie Swyers www.RSwyers.com

[Doug Welch]

Glenn

The 60 package is a very potent little kart. With almost 17 hp and only 260#, the little thing can really scoot. Tire wear is almsot no existant. But most parents just stick them on a 80 which only has twice as much power and not that much more weight.

On a good sprint track, the 60 is almost as fast as a good G1 or G2. At Norman in July, Adrian Carrio went faster than the RotaxMax drivers. In Barrie, Greg was going fast enough to out qualify a couple of the slower K1 guys. I have had many an adult come over and tell Greg that that was best race they had all season trying to get around him.

Doug