Back from a weekend trip -- responding to a few replies below:
I wrote:
> <<From the Solo II Rules -- 3.3.3.H: "Steering 'spinner' knobs shall not
be
> permitted."
>
> So much for that idea!>>
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brad Eells" <bradlnss@lightspeed.net>
> Back in 1982 when I was autocrossing the TR4A in Idaho, I saw more than
one
> Mini with what was called a "suicide knob" on the steering wheel...
> So much for the rules back then! A 'suicide knob' worked wonders on lots
of
> farm pick-ups I saw growing up. Remember the giant steering wheels and no
> power steering??
"Back then" maybe, but Section 3.3 is referenced as a mandatory section of
the rulebook even for local events.
But that said...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe Curry" <Spitlist@gte.net>
> There is one guy that uses one in regional autocross competition with
> the blessings of the region. He was born with no left arm!
I believe specific exceptions have been made to accommodate handicapped
drivers -- exactly the situation Joe mentions.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Benford Jr." <sbracing@execpc.com>
> Mel Keynon, famous USAC migdet driver, drove with his mechanical hand
> attached to the steering wheel. It had some sort of quick release on
> it. This didn't seem to slow him down and I think he was the USAC
> midget champion as well
Not Mel Kenyon, who still races occasionally today at age 70, with two good
arms. You are thinking of Merle Bettenhausen, youngest of three Bettenhausen
brothers, who indeed lost an arm in a racing wreck and returned to race with
a device on his steering wheel into which he inserted his prosthetic hook.
The "quick release" was simply that the hook slipped into this opening and
the device rotated in the same manner as a spinner knob. This was after he
tried just holding the wheel with the hook and found it did not work well.
Merle was never a Midget champion but he won eight races, and if memory
serves at least one was after he lost his arm.
As for Kenyon, indeed a USAC National Midget champ. Seven times beginning in
1964 (age 31) and the last in 1985 (age 52), and then add a USAC Speedrome
Midget championship in 1993 at age 60! A true legend. He is the USAC Midget
record holder with 111 career victories.
--Rocky Entriken
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