OK, I've been shamed into posting this one. Maybe people can learn from it. The picture says it all.
Senario: Out lap for qualifying at a NHIS regional race; I smell fuel in turn 2 and think its the car in front of me spilling it. Turn 3 comes up and at the apex its all of a sudden "HOT"! A quick look in the mirror confirms what my back is already telling me; its burning pretty good back there...
I did three things almost immediately- looked for the nearest corner station, undid my seat belt and held my breath. Its faster for you to drive to a station than to have them run to you with a 20lb fire bottle. I looked up the hill and saw two workers reaching for bottles as I came off the corner. Long and short of it...from the time it lit up to when the car was parked at the station and the fire out was maybe 20 seconds. There was a moment when I first stopped that was quite exciting as the flame swirled through the cockpit completely engulfing me. (You know the theory that one is supposed to be able to get out of one of these cars in 5 seconds? It's way faster than that when you're motivated)
The suit worked. It is a 3 layer and I always wear underwear as well. Not a burn, not a bit of redness. The back of the suit is a wonderful toasted marshmallow brown and the left arm restraint had just started to melt. The onboard fire bottle didn't work. I pulled it but nothing happened because the cable was corroded just enough to make it stiff and besides, I was more interested in getting to the corner station and getting out to pay any more attention to it.
The car was on track for the race 3 hours later. The worst part was cleaning up the extinguisher powder that was everywhere and replacing a couple of hoses in the engine compartment. The wiring harness was covered with spiral wrap which all melted but saved the wires...The worst damage was to bodywork (thank you racer's tape inventor). I think if the fire had burned for another 15-20 seconds it would have ruined just about everything under the cowling.
Now the embarrasing part. The cause was a loose fuel line fitting because we kept changing carb jets while using C44 and I forgot to tighten it. I figured this out on the way to the corner station. Funny how your mind works.
The lesson is don't skimp on the safty equipment, and rehearse in your mind what you would do in as many on track situations you can think of.
[size="1"][ November 09, 2004, 09:59 PM: Message edited by: Bob Wright ][/size]