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Seatbelt PSA

Racer56

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This happened tonight at Chili Bowl. So far it looks like he's okay, thank God 🙏. Always make sure your seatbelts are latched. @playdeep @rrrr

Screenshot_20230111-212902-317.png


 
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monkeyswrench

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Aside from the "how in hell did the harness unlatch!?"...
Holy shit! Those seats aren't real roomy, steering box, wheel pedals...to flip out of there, and manage to clear the halo at the top of the chassis, timed perfectly so as not to whip him around like a rag doll? I'd say he should buy a Powerball ticket, but I think his luck is used up for now.
 

timstoy

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Man that is scary. Hope the driver is ok. You can never have enough safety equipment. What channel is broadcasting the Chili bowl?
 

Melloyellovector

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Looks like he got whack a moled on that last flip before coming out, yikes
iv had my harness latched in sandcar and get to next stop and realize I clipped closed outside of latch. Now I yank on the fucker before putting in gear
 
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rrrr

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Jeezus! That was Ashton Torgerson, right? He's lucky to be alive. The violent movements, impact and compression of his head on the track should have killed him. It looks like one of the shoulder straps was pulled out of the top mounting point.

I want to know the failure mode, hope it will be revealed. It seems unlikely that the belt pulled out, but anything is possible. There's a lot of centripetal force generated when the car does end flips like that. You'd think if it was defective, it would have failed when the crew member tightened the belts on the ramp. In the past, I've literally used all the force I could generate and my weight to do that.

Running a Silver Crown car in the Hoosier Hundred at the Indiana State Fairgrounds was one where I really paid attention to belting in the driver because of the speeds and weight of the car.
 
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Tom Slick

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My thought is the buckle failed or got hit. If the shoulder belts broke from the frame he would still have the lap belts. The way he came out was like he had no belts at all. Absolutely frightening and I hope we hear the exact cause of him being ejected from the car so we can all learn from this. Wishing Ashton a full a speedy recovery.
 

ltbaney1

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from what i have seen online, they are speculating that his wrist restraints unlatched the belts. there were a couple of drivers saying they wont use the standard latch anymore because they had them undone by the wrist restraints, they will only use the round camlock style.
 

Socalx09

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from what i have seen online, they are speculating that his wrist restraints unlatched the belts. there were a couple of drivers saying they wont use the standard latch anymore because they had them undone by the wrist restraints, they will only use the round camlock style.
This might have been a user error on our end, but our RZR now has the prp camlock style harnesses. We hit a witches eye really hard, all the belts came undone on the driver. It could have been not clicked in all the way, the sand didn’t allow it to fully engage or the hand hit the release switch hard enough to come undone. I am still uneasy about it and now carry an air spray can to clean the sand out and make sure I hear each point click in.

Hope he has a speedy recovery
 

Tom Slick

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I just watched the crash in slow motion and paused it at the point where the wheels turned hard left. At this point I will speculate that the his hands gripping the wheel turned hard left and his left hand clipped the seat belt buckle lever and the rest is history. The steering wheel in a midget more or less sits in the drivers lap very close to the seat belt buckle. Most buckle levers have a piece of velcro on the end of the lever to help prevent this from happening.
 

ltbaney1

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This might have been a user error on our end, but our RZR now has the prp camlock style harnesses. We hit a witches eye really hard, all the belts came undone on the driver. It could have been not clicked in all the way, the sand didn’t allow it to fully engage or the hand hit the release switch hard enough to come undone. I am still uneasy about it and now carry an air spray can to clean the sand out and make sure I hear each point click in.

Hope he has a speedy recovery
i know in the past if you called crow, (who i have used for belts and fire suits / shoes for the last 10+ years) they would advise against the camlock systems in sand cars for that same reason. i personally dont like the camlock due the added "bulk" of them and i find them harder to buckle when im in the car with gloves and a helmet on. with the standard latch i can get them on and have someone else double check and pull my lap belts tight in the car, granted this is in dragsters, but i have seen and sat in a couple sprint car / midgets and the amount of room is comprable but lay out is different.
 

playdeep

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Jeezus! That was Ashton Torgerson, right? He's lucky to be alive. The violent movements, impact and compression of his head on the track should have killed him. It looks like one of the shoulder straps was pulled out of the top mounting point.

I want to know the failure mode, hope it will be revealed. It seems unlikely that the belt pulled out, but anything is possible. There's a lot of centripetal force generated when the car does end flips like that. You'd think if it was defective, it would have failed when the crew member tightened the belts on the ramp. In the past, I've literally used all the force I could generate and my weight to do that.

Running a Silver Crown car in the Hoosier Hundred at the Indiana State Fairgrounds was one where I really paid attention to belting in the driver because of the speeds and weight of the car.
His car owner Mickey Meyer from Phoenix is a friend.
He's been in racing forever and ironically owns a pair of silver crown cars.
He builds his own midget chassis and is one of the most safety conscious people that I know...
I'm hearing from friends that it was loose arm restraints that got caught in the belt latch...
 

Racer56

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MAV Saturday. Anyone know what time?
Thanks
The annual event will air live on Saturday, January 15th at 8:30 p.m. ET on MAVTV Motorsports Network and MAVTV Plus for yearly subscribers.
 

Racer56

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i know in the past if you called crow, (who i have used for belts and fire suits / shoes for the last 10+ years) they would advise against the camlock systems in sand cars for that same reason. i personally dont like the camlock due the added "bulk" of them and i find them harder to buckle when im in the car with gloves and a helmet on. with the standard latch i can get them on and have someone else double check and pull my lap belts tight in the car, granted this is in dragsters, but i have seen and sat in a couple sprint car / midgets and the amount of room is comprable but lay out is different.
Companies like Sparco now recommend Camlock belts for everything including dirt oval, offroad and anything that's races on dirt.
 

Tom Slick

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Update On Ashton Torgerson
TULSA, Okla. (January 12, 2023) Ashton Torgerson was being held for observation at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, after a wreck during the main event of Wednesday night’s race at the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals.
Torgerson, 16, of Medford, Ore., was transported shortly after the wreck but was awake and alert when he was transported. Torgerson’s father, Danny, said he passed multiple cognitive tests and had no broken bones.
The Torgerson Racing Facebook page posted an update at 11 a.m. that stated: “Ashton is sore and has been resting. The CT (scan) came back with some blood on the brain, so they continue to monitor. Dr’s are amazing that he is doing so well. The support from everyone has been amazing … will update again tonight.”
Danny Torgerson said on Thursday morning, “The whole racing community has just been amazing. It means a lot. I think the most important thing is, the responders and the officials at the Chili Bowl, if they weren’t as good as they were, that literally could be a difference between a life and death situation.”
For further updates on Torgerson, go to the Torgerson Racing Facebook page or @torgersonracing Twitter account. You can also follow @Peterson_Media on Twitter for updates.
 

ltbaney1

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I was never comfortable with cam locks for some reason...
But if they prevent this...I'm all over it. View attachment 1188505
I still dont like them, but if prevents stuff like that im all for it as well. i also have to wonder if the wrist restriants were adjusted properly? i personally prefer the ones that are stitched into the sleeves of the suit, set them once and forget it. i have seen many times in the staging lanes guys fully "strapped" in and reaching out of the car to shake hands with some one or moving around way too much for the harness to be tight enough to be effective.
 

playdeep

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interesting, do you know why the change? im not trying to be argumentive, just wondering why?
Great question...
For decades the old latch style belts worked perfectly.
Sparco builds good stuff.
I still think it was a freak kinda deal although if it happened once.
 

rrrr

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Great question...
For decades the old latch style belts worked perfectly.
Sparco builds good stuff.
I still think it was a freak kinda deal although if it happened once.
I think this incident will send shockwaves through the dirt motorsports community. It's a miracle that a funeral isn't being planned.

Drivers, owners, crew members, track owners, and sanctioning bodies will be thinking long and hard about this incident and how they view the ramifications. I know I would be if I was still racing.
 

Tom Slick

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Interesting thing is if you take the 750lbs race car out of the equation, it really wasn’t any worse than a motocross crash. That race car however could have done far more damage in reality.
 

LargeOrangeFont

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Companies like Sparco now recommend Camlock belts for everything including dirt oval, offroad and anything that's races on dirt.

I’ve seen the same. I like camlock better and have them in my road car.

I still have the latch style in the RZR.
 

Socalx09

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i know in the past if you called crow, (who i have used for belts and fire suits / shoes for the last 10+ years) they would advise against the camlock systems in sand cars for that same reason. i personally dont like the camlock due the added "bulk" of them and i find them harder to buckle when im in the car with gloves and a helmet on. with the standard latch i can get them on and have someone else double check and pull my lap belts tight in the car, granted this is in dragsters, but i have seen and sat in a couple sprint car / midgets and the amount of room is comprable but lay out is different.
I agree. I thought they would be easier and more convenient. I really listen to each click, and when I’m not sure, I redo it. It feels like it takes longer to get situated. When I talked to PRP about it, they said their new “boot seal” helps protect it from the sand elements. But, I still don’t feel convinced since that issue came up. If it ever fails again, I’ll take them back and get the latch style again. They weren’t cheap either!
 

Racer56

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interesting, do you know why the change? im not trying to be argumentive, just wondering why?
It was believed that a Camlock seatbelt in an environment where the possibility of dirt/sand intrusion into the buckle could cause the buckle to malfunction. So much so that Camlock's we're illegal by most dirt oval sanctioning bodies like USAC, WoO, etc. New designs and repeated testing by the manufacturers to SFI spec has shown that Camlock's are the preferred design and dirt/sand intrusion does not effect their ability to function in anyway.
 
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