Auto Racing - 2

Two notes to add on this issue: the SFI decertification does not impact any parallel FIA certifications. For those items where the SCCA accepts FIA certifications, an Impact Racing products item that has an FIA label remains (for the moment) acceptable per that certification.
The SCCA has not yet specified on which date they will stop accepting these older Impact items. Stay tuned...

This is getting ugly. This first link is to the SFI Foundation press release from 4/21/2010, in which they explain that Impact Racing products suits made in 2008 and prior years are to be permanently decertified. The SFI Foundation believes that non-compliant materials were used in the manufacture of the older suits, and that these suits present a safety risk.
Impact responded the following day with a press release, which may be found Here (I'll change this to a PDF link when one becomes available), arguing that the SFI process is unfair and that SFI standards are flawed.
This third link is the SFI Foundation response to Impact's 4/22 press release. The accusations leveled against Impact are quite serious. If true, then there is no choice other than decertification.

Video here.
(I actually think the involved party was the driver, not a member of the safety crew.)

"It is better to go into a corner slow and come out fast than to go into a corner fast and come out dead"

This came out while I was on vacation, I just found out the details. The short form is that the SFI and Impact agree that Impact products manufactured in 2009 and 2010 have valid SFI labels and these products will not be decertified. The jury is still out on prior years. A copy of the joint press release may be found Here.

The SCCA Racing memo that was issued today may be found Here. The gist of it is that the SCCA is deciding what to do, and in the meantime the labels are valid and are to be treated as such.

Update 3 a statement from the NEDiv Executive Steward:
It appears that this may be a genuine issue between SFI and Impact Performance Parts. I am sure that the SCCA Club Racing office is aware of this and will determine if there is any reason for members to question the validity of Impact labeled equipment and/or parts. Until such time that we are advised by Club Racing to take any action on this issue, NEDiv race officials will treat all SFI labels as legitimate.
Thanks
Earl Hurlbut

Update 2 Word is that this may clear up before 4/27, your Impact gear may be ok, so don't rush to replace it
Update I am now hearing that there are developments behind the scenes and that things may change. No idea what kind of change, though.

The SFI Foundation has just announced that they have decertified all Impact Racing products effective 4/27/2010. This means that sanctioning bodies will no longer treat Impact Racing products as meeting SFI certifications. in general, this should apply to suits, harnesses, etc. Note that as of this time, Snell Helmet certifications are separate from SFI certifications, so Impact helmets that are coming in under Snell standards are not affected (yet.)
Things that may happen (and some that will happen):

• In the SCCA, you may see early season efforts to go through driver gear and harnesses, either in impound or by requiring gear checks in morning tech irrespective of helmet stickers. Impound seems more likely to me. I know I will be checking when I am Chief of Tech at the May National at Lime Rock.


• This is an SFI Foundation decision, sanctioning bodies have not yet checked in. The decertification takes effect automatically, if sanctioning bodies do nothing. What is likely is that they will either do nothing, and allow it go into effect automatically, or they might take punitive action and, for example, ban all Impact products (including helmets.) The jury is still out on this.


• I have no information about Impact and Snell Helmet stickers.

Background
A long time ago, the SCCA tended to list brand names that were acceptable, or material types, or a mixture of both. Over time, certification bodies such as the Snell Foundation and then the SFI Foundation developed strong standards and certification programs, and as trust built, the SCCA has tended to remove lists of acceptable brands and materials and instead insert references to standards.
This means that it's important to buy gear in the affected categories that carry proper labeling. The foundations are funded, in part, by the fact that they provide the labels and charge for them. I can't speak to why Impact did what they did, but it may simply have been to save a few bucks, the gear may actually be safe, it's hard to say. In any event, after 4/27/2010, the Impact harnesses and suits have to be gone.

Apparently the SCCA has decided this year that we don't need change bars in the rulebook to indicate what's different from last year. Oh well. There's a section on a whole new engine in the Formula Ford category spec, and nothing to indicate that it hasn't always been there.

I see from my first quick look at the 2010 GCR that the SCCA will require head/neck restraints beginning in 2012. I think this is a really good idea, but please, people, read the manual that accompanies the device you choose and make sure your installation conforms. For the HANS system, this means paying close attention to the spacing of the shoulder harness mounting points. A mount which conforms to the GCR (4" to 6" center to center at the mount behind the driver's head) should work properly.

This blog name came from a joke I am prone to telling at the race track.
As a technical inspector, I frequently find myself inspecting cars that have been involved in "events" on the track. We call it PAS ("Post Accident Inspection") and the purpose is to annotate the vehicle logbook, so the next tech inspector to review the car (presumably post repair) knows what we saw when we looked at it in the aftermath of the "event". Some times these cars have rolled. Most people who don't hang out at race tracks automatically assume that rolling must be bad, but for full bodied sedans, that is rarely the case (Cars that drove straight into guardrails are usually much more badly damaged than cars that rolled).
So PAS on a car that rolls is often an excuse for some comedy, there are times I don't even bother to write anything in the book, and on more than one occasion i've reissued a tech sticker and told them to go ahead and race the next day.
But I do tell them to put some "this side up" stencils on the side of the car because they seem to have trouble with that.