SAFETY IN MOTORSPORT
It was this incident at Mid-Ohio in 2008 that prompted Honda Performance Development’s safety programme
Fire extinguisher P
Pit lane fires have always been a potential hazard in motorsport, but a new safety system from HPD aims to put a stop to this for good
it lane fires are one of the great hazards in motorsport and, while every precaution is taken to prevent their
occurrence, they are an accepted risk for race team crew members. However, at the opening round of the 2011 IZOD IndyCar series, every car was equipped with a new safety device aimed at changing this perception and preventing fires resulting from a driver leaving his pit before the fuel hose is detached. The new device, developed and supplied by California-based Honda Performance Development
BY ALAN LIS
(HPD), is the result of a programme that began following a pit fire at the Mid-Ohio round of the 2008 American Le Mans Series. Driver Simon Pagenaud received a signal to leave his pit, unaware that the hose connected to the pit fuel tank was still locked onto the inlet nozzle of his de Ferran Motorsports-run Acura (HPD) ARX-01 LMP2 racecar. As he moved away, the hose was torn from the pit tank, dousing the immediate area with several litres of high octane race fuel, which ignited. Prompt action
by crew members and pit lane marshals soon extinguished the flames, but not before a crew member sustained serious burns to his hands and face. HPD technical director, Roger Griffiths, was on the de Ferran Motorsports timing stand that day and recalls, ‘My first thought was that we had to be able to do something so that a similar situation could not happen again.’ So began the development of the HPD Refuelling Safety Interlock System (RSIS). For ACO sportscar racing
applications a solution was relatively simple, as the
regulations governing the ALMS and other ACO series require the driver to switch off the engine before a car can be refuelled. Inhibiting the re-starting of the engine until the fuel hose is detached was therefore the answer. However, ‘hot’ refuelling is still a feature of many other forms of racing. Although the ALMS incident
provided the initial impetus for the RSIS project, HPD’s focus soon turned to another racing category. ‘When we sat down and thought about the problem, we soon came to the conclusion that there were actually many
September 2011 •
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