This is weird. Monday I sent my ramblings about the PRI show to four
different lists, but it only came back to me on two. Never saw the ones I
sent Team.Net or the Wichita list (which is also a Team.Net list). So when I
asked if anyone had seen it on the team.net lists, I got both affirmative
and negative replies. Why would it reach some destinations and not others
that are on the same list? Very puzzling. Also, I had zero responses to it
from the team.net lists, and several from the other two; also odd and
indicating team.net (or most of it) had not seen it.
Well, some asked to see it so here 'tis again. Apologies if you've already
had it once.
BTW, some responses I have indicate I may not have heard correctly about
pricing on the HANS device.
--Rocky
* * * * *
Just got back last night from what one netter called "the racer's candy
store" - the Performance Racing Industry magazine trade show in
Indianapolis.
I write occasionally for PRI and thought it was time I saw for myself
what this extravaganza is about, and an extravaganza it is! It's held in the
RCA Dome and Indiana convention center. Looking at the show map and trying
to get an idea of its size, I asked someone if the RCA dome was where the
Pacers (basketball) played. No, it is where the Colts play. And then the
convention center is three times the size, not counting all the hallways and
conference rooms. But you have to count them too because they are ALL full
of booths and exhibits. IOW, an exposition the size of about *five* football
fields jammed with race stuff. More than 1000 exhibitors. And sore feet
every evening.
It's said to be a three-day show, but really it's four. Wednesday, before
the actual show begins, they have a couple of must-do events. An industry
roundtable, and a Gasoline Alley Tour.
The roundtable was started about six years ago by Smokey Yunick, who died
earlier this year. They found an equally iconoclastic host to carry on the
tradition, Humpy Wheeler, the GM of Lowe's Motor Speedway. The panel was
impressive, including such folk as Don Prudhomme, Frank Kimmel (ARCA champ),
IRL medico Dr. Henry Bock, L.A. Times' Shav Glick, Goodyear's Al Gammon,
crash expert Bill Muzzy, HANS developer Jim Downing (with his cohort Dr. Bob
Hubbard in the audience), and others. They focused on two topics - economics
and safety, with the latter including the part of the Earnhardt crash
analysis (from Muzzy) you didn't hear at the NASCAR presentation in August.
According to Muzzy, a major contributor to Earnhardt's fatality was that
his belts were just done wrong. If there was a wrong way to locate any
anchor of his system, it was done that way. Lap belt should be an inch or
two forward of the plane of the seat back. DE's was some seven inches to the
rear, which made his belt bend as it went through the seat opening, and that
contributed to the "dumping" of the adjuster that eventually tore the belt.
He also noted that while the belt may be rated at 5000 pounds, that assumes
an even load across the belt. Put all the load on one edge of the belt, as
it was in the DE incident, and it can hold only about 1800 pounds before it
fails. DE also had both his shoulder straps and sub strap badly located. The
sub was forward of the seat, essentially pulling the lap belt away from the
body. It should be located so as to pull the lap belt down (opposite the
upward pull of the shoulder straps) and in. Through the seat, preferably.
The shoulder straps were too long, anchored too far behind his body. They
stretch on impact, and the longer the straps are the more stretch you can
get, which had more to do with DE impacting his steering wheel than the torn
lap belt (which Muzzy thinks was not completely torn until after efforts to
remove DE from the car; he thinks the EMT who was first in and later said
the belt was intact was essentially correct [it was torn, but not
completely]).
That evening was the Gasoline Alley tour. I always thought Gasoline Alley
was just the nickname for the garages at the Speedway, but it is also a
street south of the Speedway where a cluster of race-oriented shops are
located. They closed off the street to traffic as show-goers wandered up and
down visiting more than two dozen businesses. They ranged from parts stores
(Earl's, North American), to graphics businesses (Freelance Lettering,
Shadow Graphics) to fabricators (B.East, Drinan Racing) to race teams
(Bettenhausen/Herdez, Hemelgarn). Fun visiting with Bob East, whose Beast
chassis rule USAC, and Danny Drinan, discussing his new Silver Crown chassis
design and how he got USAC to approve it up front because he tends to be a
bit radical and wanted the assurance it would be legal so he could sell
some. He had the approval letter taped to a buck of his body design.
Thursday it was showtime. This show is in Indy, BTW, not so much because
Indy is a race city as that the RCA Dome and Convention Center can handle
it. It has outgrown four former homes in Kentucky and Ohio.
This thing is so huge, you gotta have a plan, so I charted out a couple
dozen places I specifically wanted to visit and basically spent Thursday
doing that. Then Friday I started at one end of the hall just to walk up and
down the rows to glance at everything and see what else there was to see. I
really thought, starting out, I'd get most of the way through on Friday and
use Saturday for mopup. Wrong-o. Friday I got through all the hallways,
meeting rooms, the portion in the RCA Dome, and the Machinery Row by closing
time. Saturday I started in the northeast corner of the "big room" and
managed to reach the southwest corner with about half an hour to spare
before it shut down - and then found another hallway I'd missed before!
In no particular order, as I go through the five shopping bags of
catalogs and literature I collected, here are some of the wonders that fell
before my eyes.
BEST GADGET: An automatic wire stripper thet peels the outer coating off
any wire without damaging what's underneath. It even stripped the outer
layer of telephone wire without even a nick in the coating of those thin
wires inside, and then stripped those coatings without touching a single one
of thise wire strands. And now I can't find who makes the dang thing, but I
bought six of them to give as Christmas presents.
From Vitatoe Industries [vitatoe.com], an infrared thermal imaging night
vision system. It has a screen about the size of a rear-view mirror and a
"camera" you mount behind the grille or atop your tow truck. With it you can
see 3 to 5 times the distance your headlights show at night. Do you tow? At
night? Ever dodged a deer? It detects differences in heat so it will even
show the stripes on the road.
I met Burt Levy, who wrote "The Last Open Road," who told me about two
other books he had out. "Montezuma's Ferrari" is the sequel to TLOR and
reviewers say it is better. Then there is "B.S. Levy's Potside Companion," a
collection of short stories and tall tales that apparently is meant to be
read "in the most important room of the house (excepting the garage)."
Funny! [www.lastopenroad.com]
Spent some time chatting with Bruce Foss of Hoosier Tire, who assures me
once again that cantilever slicks will be around for the foreseeable future
for those of us who need them. It was not cantilevers that were going to go
away a couple of years ago, he said, but the belt material they were using
made by DuPont. That stuff DID go away. They are now using Kevlar for the
belts, making it even a stronger tire.
Valvoline Cup. Woo hoo, I gotta get in on this. It's a grassroots
motorsport championship that just about anyone below the level of Jeff
Gordon or Steve Kinser can get into. Heck, maybe they can too. The fellow at
the Valvoline booth said Paul Gentilozzi had just come by and signed up.
Okay, now I want to be able to say I outran Gentilozzi, and you can too.
There are categories for everything from NASCAR touring series to Jr.
Dragsters. And yes, SCCA club racing (Full Bodied Sports Car for me), and
autocross (included in the Time Trials category). Points go up to 10 deep in
any event, with all cars below 10th getting 1 point. Points for first are
how many cars in the class up to 10 (8-car class, winner gets 8; 38-car
class, winner gets 10). Plus the winner always gets 1 bonus point. So even
if you are a 1-car class, you get 2 points. So you can be out there running
your regional autocross series or your divisional road race series and
competing against guys doing NAMARS midgets or NASCAR All-Pro or NHRA import
drags. [www.valvolinecup.com].
Talked to Kurt Spitzner at the ProDrive booth, the team that fields the
World Rally Championship Subarus. The SCCA Pro Rally schedule had an
interesting new event on it that Kurt asked me please not to reveal yet
because the event organizers had yet to make their announcement. Suffice it
to say it will be the shortest points-awarding Pro Rally on the schedule.
One stage, 12 miles long, but with significant elevation change.
In a roundabout way I finally found an affirmative answer to a question
I've seen a number of times on Wheel-to-Wheel: where can female drivers find
Nomex feminine undergarments? I had occasion to chat with IRL driver Sarah
Fisher so I asked her. She said they don't exist. I figured she probably had
enough clout to go ask Bill Simpson to make her something. "Oh, I don't want
to go there with Bill," she laughed. Later I was at the RaceQuip booth,
which showed some fetching young women in full race gear. They did not have
undies either, but pointed me to a competitor, Design 500. Sure enough,
Design 500 had a line of Lady Eagle Safetywear including such as shorts,
panties, tanktops and sportsbras in colorful Nomex. So you gals who have
been looking for something along that line, it exists. [www.design500.com]
And to give credit to the sportsmanlike folk who sent me there:
[www.racequip.com]
Sure wish I could afford some of the nifty jacks I found at Argo
Manufacturing. They had a "Sport Jack" that goes down to 3-1/8" and pumps to
full height in 5-6 pumps. This ain't what I got at Wal-Mart that gets down
to 5.5" and takes 40 pumps bottom to top. But it ain't that $49.95 Wal-Mart
price either. Try $1800! Ah, but we can dream. [www.argo-pace-rapco.com]
Got my hands on a HANS for the first time. I want one, but wish they were
not so dang expensive. It's that carbon fiber collar. The fellow I talked
to, Vince Tidwell, said they were essentially past the stage where they all
had to be custom fitted. Now its 2-3 sizes fits all, plus a kid-size
version. I must admit, it seems like it would be a lot nicer than that
torso-strap stuff of the Hutchens device. The drivers who seem to have the
biggest problem with them seems to be stock car drivers. Open-car drivers -
both open-wheel and roadster folk like me - don't have the problem exiting
the car with them. I've also noticed that, watching the bigtime races,
CART/IRL drivers tend to exit the car, then take their helmet off; NASCAR
drivers tend to take their helmet off, then exit the car. The HANS comes off
with the helmet, so a bit more awkward doing it inside the car. Tidwell said
the price probably will come down, but when I suggested it needed to be a
third what it is now, he said not that much. But they used to be something
over $1200 each, and already now it is down to a 3-figure price.
[www.hansdevice.com]
After 20 years of peddling Formula V Traction Treatment, I finally got to
meet Tom Vosnick, who invented it and manufactures it. We had a very
enjoyable chat at his booth. In truth, I am probably one of his smaller
retailers, but that did not seem to matter. His big news is that sometime
next year he will be using a new bottle in his never-ending quest for the
best leak-proof container. Now it's a child-proof cap. Probably means we
will never be able to open it again. :-)
A competing product, Track Claw, was also there. Was it just me as a
believer in FVTT, or did the guy in the booth seem truly vague when asked
about his stuff? The application instructions he was displaying seemed
bizarre. "Using bed sheeting material, cut out strips to the width of the
tire..." He wants you to treat the tire, then wrap it like some mummy, then
bag it for 1-3 days, then take them out of the bags for another two days!
That's not winter storage, that's just the weekly between-races program. It
costs twice as much as FVTT, but the application is more convoluted and
time-consuming. All you need to do with FVTT is give it a couple of days to
soak in. No wrapping, no bagging. Yuck! (Bagging is a good idea for winter
storage, however.)
Gotta send off to my friend Ted Schumacher at TS Imported Automotive for
one of his new gear-reduction starters. I have a "new" stock one in the car
this year, and it has given me trouble 2-3 times. The Bendix would be stuck
and not engage the flywheel. Real pain on the grid. Actually, Ted was there
manning the booth for Hi-Torque Performance Products, which is one of his
distributors. But those gear-reduction starters you see in Vicky Brit or
Roadster Factory catalogues - they're Ted's. [www.tsimportedautomotive.com]
More dreams - how about a Quaife limited slip unit in my diff? Available
for only $750 now from Quaife America. Price list also shows a bunch of
gearboxes, axle kits, etc. [www.quaifeamerica.com]
I told the Flex-Hone guy that I'd had mine for cylinder honing more than
25 years and probably didn't need another. Of course, I'm not using mine on
a daily basis, but for a mechanical klutz like me it is golden. No chance to
score the cylinders or anything. This is a really neat tool in sizes that
can about hone out the inside of a thimble, up to how big d'ya wanna get? He
showed me a new one for honing brake discs and said he had a customer who
used it to scrape the pickup rubber off his tires. Hmmmm. Maybe I might want
another after all. [www.flex-hone.com]
Okay, you've heard tell of those motorized barstools. Not urban fable.
Real and true. The Bar Fly 2000 is "the only high performance motorized bar
stool." Chromoly chassis, 3.5 hp Briggs & Stratton engine, disk brake,
slicks, 22 mph. Accessories include a wheelie bar or a trailer. It looks
like it wants to fall over frontwards - steering wheel is at the same level
as the seat - but the guy in the booth said going over backwards is more
common. Wheelie bar is recommended. [www.barfly2000.com]
Another nifty item if you get overheated in your multi-layer Nomex: the
Cool Shirt from Shafer Enterprises. Just a Hanes Beefy-T (100% cotton) with
50 feet of cooling tubes sewn on the outside and circulating cold water from
a small 6-pack size (12 quart) cooler. Not so complex as the Cool Suit, and
just perfect for the club racer. In addition to Shafer's booth, I saw the
shirt on display in several retailers' booths as well.
[www.chillfactorproducts.com]
Oscar Koveleski grabbed me and spent a half-hour telling me about his
Kidracer cars. What he wants to happen is that people will buy them and set
up something like concessions for kids to race these little walking-speed
cars. Meant for age 3-7 - "Learn to drive/race before 5" he says. If you
know anything about Koveleski, you may remember him as the originator of the
Polish Race Drivers Association (open only to Poles who race, Poles who
don't race, non-Poles who race, and non-Poles who don't race). He was a
former A Sports Racing national champ. He also gave me a miniature of the
original "Le Mans" movie poster.
One fun booth was MarketPoint Productions, which had the left rear fender
of a Winston Cup car there that you could play pit crew on. Grab the air
wrench and pop off five lugnuts, pull the tire, push it back and zip the
lugnuts back on. Time started when you picked up the wrench, stopped when
you put it back down in its little "holster." Always wondered how those
crewmen hit the lugnuts five times zip-zip-zip-zip-zip so accurately. I
found out the secret is not to rush it, just be deliberate and quick. Coming
off you overdo it a bit to be sure the nut is off, going back on you just
hit it a quick zip and go to the next one. Also, you never let go of the
trigger between lugnuts. Yes, sparks do fly! Bunch of college kids were
there challenging each other, doing it in 10-12 seconds. On my third try I
got it done in 8.69. Of course the REAL crew guys doing a 4-tire stop in
14-something seconds, including time to run around the car, I'd figure the
simple off-on process has to be done in around 5. Yes, you can rent this
thing for your convention or arcade.
Not surprisingly, most of the stuff there was geared to roundy-rounds or
drag racing, but there was some road racing presence there. SCCA had its
booth (including a handout from the Topeka Chamber of Commerce on the top-10
reasons to relocate to Topeka -- #8. You can breathe clean air every day). I
found Chris Bernard there, a former Solo II National Champ in D Mod, with
his Kokopelli sportsracer car. Also saw the Radical sportsracer up close.
Ran into a small number of SCCA racers wandering the halls, virtually all
with some commercial tie-in of one sort or another.
The PRI show is free admittance if you can pass the "pro" test - you have
to be a pro in the racing business, which usually means you are a
manufacturer or a retailer of parts and pieces, or provide some service
racers use. Doesn't mean you have to be a full-time pro, but they don't want
every hobby racer in the place. It'd be overwhelmed. They expected some
35,000 there as it was. They want the people the hobby racers go to.
The 11-hour drive to Indy was sure worth the trip!
--Rocky Entriken
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