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Sprint car fire suppression systems cause dissension in dirt racing | Daily 3-14-2023

Today we are getting into all things fire suppression systems, plus updates on some weekend cancellations and a new All Star driver. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, March 14th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

Fire suppression systems for sprint cars have been an ongoing topic of conversation over the past year or so, and I wanted to dive into them a little bit more today. There are plenty of opinions on the subject from various parties, including some drivers, and not every series and track has made them mandatory just yet. This all started way back at the start of 2022, when the World of Outlaws announced they were going to make them mandatory for the 2023 season. So any sprint car team that wants to run with the Outlaws this season must have one in their car. The rules update says that all race cars must have a system meeting the SFI 17.3 specification. Both a thermal trigger and a manual trigger must be mounted in the driver's compartment, with the manual trigger being within reach of the driver. There also must be at least one nozzle. The bottle itself has to be DOT approved steel or aluminum, it must be mounted to the frame, with a minimum capacity of 5lbs. The system must remain charged, and display a legible and valid SFI label. The series has four approved manufacturers, they are Lifeline, Safety Systems Inc., Spa Technique, and Safecraft. I shared a video over the weekend from Billy Dietrich's YouTube channel where he and Danny showed where they mounted the system in Danny's car. His is to the left of his seat, and the mounting process isn't without it's challenges. There is also a video from Speedway Motors showing them mounting a system in Tyler Drueke's car in a similar location. I'll link to both videos below in the description. Danny's critiques of the system included the difficulty in finding the space to mount it, the cost of the system, and the concerns with it accidentally going off, either from the driver making contact with it getting in and out of the car, and the possibility of excess heat triggering the thermal release. I think all are fair and valid issues, and there will most likely be a transition period as this becomes commonplace. Bugs will be worked out as problems arise, and I'm sure the systems will continue to evolve. As for the cost, the Lifeline system on the Speedway website is listed as $699.99 with the clamp, and the Firebottle is $649.99. Certainly not cheap, but I feel like if you can't afford the safety gear to go racing, especially in 410 sprint car, you probably can't afford to go racing period. In the Speedway video, they mentioned the systems weigh in the neighborhood of eight pounds, but with the minimum weight being raised for sprint car competition, it shouldn't be an issue. There have been plenty of drivers that have made public comments against the move, including Donny Schatz and back when it was initially announced, there were plenty of others who spoke out including Gio and Dominic Scelzi and Logan Wagner. Schatz said last year to Jeremy Elliott that the mounting spot doesn't work for his safety, and other drivers have questioned the motives behind the mandate and why more isn't done for race track safety. It's important to understand though, that race car drivers are often against safety changes. Formula 1 drivers were against seat belts in the 1960s and 70s, I remember NASCAR drivers being against full face helmets, and plenty have complained about full containment seats. They don't like change or anything they think will inhibit their driving. This doesn't really feel different than those other improvements. Fire suppression systems are mandatory in all sorts of other series including F1 and NASCAR, and it's past time that they were introduced to short track racing. As for the motives behind the move, the cynical out there have pointed towards this being a cash grab for World Racing Group. And it is true that Lifeline, one of the approved systems, is a series sponsor. But there are three other approved manufacturers that are not listed as having that same relationship. So it would be pretty easy to not buy the Lifeline system if that was really a problem for someone. And on the flip side, Lifeline is offering $50 contingency money a night, which will end up being somewhere around $4000 total for the season. You could definitely pay for a system by hitting that a few times in 2023. Companies like ARP Fastners, Cometic Gasket, and MSD Ignition are all also series sponsors, but I don't see anyone complaining about them. And race cars need products from those types of companies as well. Fire is one of those things that is ever present in motorsports and always probably will be. In my NASCAR career, I was apart of pit road fires on several occasions, and they aren't fun. In sprint car racing, we are witnessing Mark Dobmeier right now go through the effects of a fire, and California driver Caeden Steele had a very scary incident late in 2022 at Hanford. It's easy to forget about the danger, or avoid it all together, but it's one of those things that only needs to happen once to be really terrible for someone. I don't understand drivers advocating against themselves, but this is an area I feel like maybe we don't mess with. As I said, I'll link those videos below, along with an article from PRI with a ton of details.

Before we move on to a couple of news items, shoutout today to several new channel members. Karl, Jarrett, Ed, Jeff, and Joshua have all hopped on in recent days with added support for what I'm doing here, so thanks to all of them. If you want to check out that program, click the join buttons, the link below in the description, or hit up youtube.com/dirtrackr/join.

If you are planning on heading out to the track this weekend, keep an eye on that weather. We've already had several weekend cancellations, and it's only Tuesday. We know both Attica and Lavonia have sacked shows, and the Mini Gold Cup at Chico is off. Make sure you check websites and social media as we get closer to Friday and Saturday to make sure you know what's going on. I'm sure these are the last we'll see.

The All Star Circuit of Champions are still a few weeks away from their season getting back going, but another team is jumping in full time. Florida driver Conner Morrell and Marc Daily Racing announced yesterday they will tackle the full schedule in 2023. We've seen Morrell run all over Ohio in 410 competition, along with scattered starts with the All Stars and Outlaws. He did race with the All Stars back a few weeks ago at East Bay, with a best finish of 17th. Morrell joins an All Star field that includes defending champion Tyler Courtney, Chris Windom, Parker Price Miller, Scotty Thiel, Zeb Wise and Hunter Schuerenberg. Justin Peck's status with Buch remains up in the air. There is still some opportunity here to add more drivers, so we'll see what plays out in the coming weeks. That first All Star race back is April 7th at Attica.

Three shows today on the streaming schedule. The one actual live program is weekly outlaw karts from Millbridge on DIRTVision. They've also got DIRTVision Now and there is FloRacing 24/7. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.

Have a good Tuesday out there, we'll see you guys tomorrow.