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03/10/2015 |
I
bid you welcome gentle readers to what I hope will become an interesting
discourse between us as we learn some things together… and it wouldn’t break
this old heart if someone from NASCAR were to join in because we’re going to
make some sense out of things together, you and I. Most folks see me as a bit
of an anomaly… an old lady in the age of technology, but I do my best to keep
abreast, as it were. This past week, I was given a crash course in Google
Earth. Granted, I learned just enough to make me a possible threat to mankind,
but I also learned there are websites for everything, and they are there for
our edification. I’ve done some of the legwork and gratefully accepted some
help from others, but look what I have come up with. I call it “Truth at a
glance” and it shows exactly how much SAFER barrier protects each track, and
how much of each is still exposed to the Jeff Gordon concrete-seeking radar.
By
the time this reaches you, this year’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will
already be in the record books, and I pray that all drivers walked away without
meeting the grand display of unprotected concrete walls you see in this
picture.
Without
resorting to a micrometer, I’d say this track is just about 50/50 in the ratio
of protected to unprotected walls. If Jeff Gordon missed the concrete at Las
Vegas, it was by the grace of God, with not much help from NASCAR.
Now,
let’s take a look at Phoenix, the next track up on the much ballyhooed Western
Swing, which by the way, this scribe has suggested over and over again since
two of these tracks joined the circuit, Las Vegas in 1996 and Auto Club in
1997, without recognition. Smart thinking Brian, and it only took 18 years.
This
one is a smaller track, measuring only a mile as compared to the 1.5-mile track
in Las Vegas. The larger track sports the new progressive banking, while little
old Phoenix is too flat a platter to hold the soup, as my Gram would have said.
Flat tracks do, as a rule, produce slower speeds, but it’s not the speed that
kills; it’s the angle at which the car hits an unforgiving wall. Remember, we
lost two promising young racers at the 1-mile flat track in New Hampshire, and
that fact alone makes a very convincing argument for having SAFER everywhere
feasible.
Harkening
back to Las Vegas for a moment, because that’s where I am in time as I type
this, we’ve been reading conversations that say after this race, the powers
that be from the track will be meeting with NASCAR to discuss “long-term plans”
for enhanced safety. Excuse me? Surely, I can’t be reading that right! What
part of 14 years…FOURTEEN YEARS…
wasn’t long-term enough that only half of that track is protected today? That
is the same sort of “promise” we’ve gotten every time this subject arises. Yes,
it takes time to build a SAFER barrier and yes, it’s specialized work requiring
specialized parts. That’s why it’s so
expensive… but it’s also why it works!
Here’s a free ticket to
a column I wrote
two years ago, with a fairly easy to understand explanation of SAFER, how it
works and why. Please note that a couple of corrections need to be made in figures
I quoted then. They may seem insignificant, but I want to be correct, and these
figures come directly from Dean Sicking, the “Father of SAFER.”
1. The
panels are 28 ft. long, not 20.
2. The
panels are secured with nylon straps, not cables.
The
following is something else Dr. Sicking kindly shared with me, in his own
words. NASCAR, please read this carefully and stop telling folks that tires on
a wall are somehow a replacement for the peace of mind and body that SAFER
barriers offer to our drivers.
“The safer barrier
functions by separating the collision into two separate impacts. During
the collision with the SAFER wall, the car accelerates a section of the wall
and slows the velocity of the impacting car. The wall is tuned to move a
wall mass that is approximately the same as the weight of the car. Recall
HS physics, when a moving object strikes a stationary mass of about the same
weight in a fully plastic impact, Conservation of Momentum analysis would
indicate that the moving object loses about half of its velocity. In our
case the car loses about ½ of its velocity perpendicular to the wall. This
impact throws the driver toward the wall and his belts begin to restrain him.
As the foam is crushed, the driver stretches his belts. Before the foam
is fully crushed, the belts begin to pull the driver back toward his seat. When
the driver is moving back toward his seat, he will not be exposed to the high
decal rates that occur when the steel SAFER wall strikes the concrete
barrier. In essence, we cut the effective impact speed in half and this
generally cuts the risk of serious injury and fatality by a factor of 4.”
Tires,
depending upon the angle of impact, can and do repel a car and bounce it back
into oncoming traffic, thereby exposing both car and driver to secondary and
tertiary collisions with other vehicles, while SAFER’s design absorbs kinetic
energy from the impact and dissipates it away from the driver, reducing, as Dr.
Sicking explains, the force of impact by half and chance of injury by a factor
of 4. In simple English, if a car hits a SAFER barrier at 100 mph, the driver
feels an impact equal to 50 mph and his risk of injury is cut to ¼ of what it
would have been without SAFER.
Today
I’m reading that Jeff Gordon will meet with NASCAR after the Las Vegas race to
discuss the presence or absence of SAFER barriers, yet Jeff admits he really doesn’t
know enough to make an effective representation to the sanctioning body. If
anyone has Jeff’s ear, please send him to read not just this column, but also
the one linked above. All of my words have either been OK’d or added to by Dr.
Sicking, and can be trusted to be the truth. I really wish that NASCAR could
say the same. Remember, at one time, they told us these barriers had been
“Mandated” by them, only to learn much later that there is a large discrepancy
between mandated and really mandated. This scribe wearies of word games and
semantics. Just try the truth guys! It can do wonders for your credibility.
Phoenix
Raceway, you’re next up on the schedule. The picture above, depicting your
existing SAFER coverage is true and accurate as of this date. We, the fans that
care, do not care about tires on the wall. When do you plan to complete adding
SAFER to the remaining walls of your track? That’s a very simple question, and
we’d appreciate a very simple answer. Just an expected completion date would be
wonderful.
NASCAR,
the burden is on you. Please, mandate the SAFER barriers everywhere feasible,
and mean it. Mr. France, we honestly do not care if at some other time of the
year a track races ostriches. It simply does not matter one whit when compared to
the safety of the human lives inside those cars you sanction. Hear our message;
you’re going to keep on seeing it until it’s everywhere!
Time
now for our Classic Country Closeout, and it occurred to me sometime in the wee
small hours of the morning that there is a genre of Classic Country I don’t
believe we’ve ever touched on. My fault entirely; mea culpa, mea culpa! Today
then, we concentrate on yodeling, a style of singing classic to more than just
our country. First up is Mama’s all-time favorite, the King of the Western
Yodelers, Elton Britt, doing his incomparable version of “Chime Bells.” Please enjoy!
Next
up is one that enhanced the life of the teenager I once was. I’m not sure Kenny
Roberts is the best yodeler I’ve ever heard, but he has to be up top somewhere
on the list. Here is Kenny with his smash hit from the early 1950s, “She Taught Me to Yodel.”
Next
we’ll hear from a guy that was a truly awesome yodeler, but didn’t do enough of
it. Here’s the King of the Cowboys, Roy Rogers, yodeling his way through “The Cowboy Night Herd Song.”
And
lastly, one from the distaff side. Once upon a time, I had a recording of Jean
Shepard doing Chime Bells. Alas, that was on vinyl and doesn’t live here
anymore. Among all of Jean’s recordings, I’ve never managed to replace that
single one. This lady though, does a marvelous job as well, so here is Wanda
Jackson singing “The Cowboy Yodel.”
Be
well gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling. It looks so good on you!
~
PattyKay