Page 26 - KCRPCA March-April

9. Seat Installs:
If you can grab and shake your seat and it wiggles a lot....it isn’t installed cor- rectly. Race seats seems like the easiest thing in the world to install......and they always take about 4-5 hours or more to do properly.
12. Lastly to the Instructors:
Tech inspect your student’s car before going out on track. This is a good part of establishing rapport with your stu- dent by talking about their car and how they got it ready for the event. Do not be afraid to sideline the car if you nd something that does not look safe. Grab the club race/HPDE chair people and get them involved to make sure it is safe for your student, you, and other people on the track.
So these are some of the most com- mon safety issues that I have found dur- ing inspections. Please review the PCA club racing rules, and/or your HPDE tech inspection forms closely and double check that your car meets the require- ments every year. We don’t ever want to see anyone damage their car and put their safety at risk, but it does happen.... and we all think it will never happen to us. Remember, something like a broken mechanical item (tie rod, ball joint, etc.) can cause an instant, uncontrollable inci- dent, not just something related to driver error. I use phrases like “when your car hits the wall” and not “if your car hits the wall,” to scare you into going into overkill mode on your safety equipment and I hope it does. Bottom line is you are safer in an HPDE environment than you probably were driving down the in- terstate to get to the track, but we still want to make sure everyone is safe and has a fantastic HPDE or race weekend. My number one rule is “Even if you are doing HPDE, the car and the wall do not know you aren’t racing.” Go overkill on everything and be safe!!
- Karl
26
Mar / Apr 2018
10. Tires and Brake Pads:
I can’t tell you how many brake pad sets I have sold over the years on Sat- urday afternoon at track events. Please make sure your brake pads are at least 50% thickness remaining in order to get you through the weekend. I would say tires wearing out and cording are the number 1 reason for ending a weekend early. Please make sure your tires are in excellent shape and that the tread is even inside to outside!
11. Loose Items in the Car.
Leave your oor mats at home, clean out your trunks, make sure any loose items are removed from the car, so they don’t come ying out of your glove box, bang around in your trunk, or have a oor mat get jammed on your accelera- tor pedal!