It's significant progress! You should be proud! You've made very mature comments lately. Now looking back, you can realize that 99.99% of the car enthusiasts you have ever talked to have absolutely no idea what-so-ever what you are talking about when it comes to performance. They are going to be like but I read in car & driver/modified mag... blah blah blah... and will argue until they are blue in the face....
Even my new crew chief, Kyle whom is 19 yrs old gets it. He made the comment to me the other day that even after having tracked a Mazda Miata once everything else on the street was just completely irrelevant. Yet, you can talk to anyone else without that driver calibration and they just don't get it......
There are a lot of reasons to all this, but the thing to know is that for the most part, the organizers pretty much just rent the track and some corner workers. With many clubs a courtesy brake light / helmet check, and making sure you have a pulse is all you need to get your car on the pavement. Others like my local PCA chapter may go the extra mile and require signed annual inspections by designated people to track with them and bring good people. Sure, it varies and some organizers do a better job than others I guess. However, no matter what the situation, my opinion is that it is your car/life in your hands so you need to eventually develop yourself to be the professional and take charge of your own safety out there first. Particularly if you are going to be regularly open lapping solo, then now might be a good time to think about your safety.
Clearly as this thread demonstrates, the HPDE culture is pretty lax and a lot of people get by with very little. Many feel invincible and think they can mitigate the need to spend a few grand year after year by doing X, Y, Z. They will show up with a six figure sports can but can't seem to get off 5 grand for safety gear and will rationalize it line item by line item in all sorts of creative ways. It's just ridiculous if you put it all into perspective. What are you really saving here?
Personally, I'd rather be seen as the power-ranger with all the latest safety gear posting 5 minute lap-times any-day of the week than being the manly I can-beat-all-the-odds ignorant type and end up in a hospital. I bet if you asked Randy Pobst he would tell you that there is nothing unsexy or less manly about being safe no matter what your experience or usage level.
Don't know what to say, other than we'll have to agree to disagree. I don't think it matters if the car is 99/1, or if you are pushing 5/10ths, or what the odds are. It really only has to happen once and the consequences can be horrific. There have certainly been HPDE's where people have gotten hurt on their very first day. There have been incidents with instructors in the car. Their have been mechanical failures like wheels coming off or toe links breaking. Will you probably be ok? Sure... but who here is going to be doing the hand holding for Dave's family if shit goes south?
I am not trying to scare anyone, I am simply trying to encourage people to spend the money it takes to do things right, and get proper gear if they want to go fast on a race track. Sooner rather than later. The inescapable fact is that motor sports comes with real risks, and no matter how extensive your mitigations it's not a perfect system by any means.
Really, what is the primary counter-argument as to why having adequate roll-over protection is not needed in a targa top sports car? Even CART had one in their NSX pace car.
As far as context, consider Dr Frank Nitto. Now, he actually had all the good safety gear in his time-trial NSX, but as I recall the event organizers at the HPDE requested that he keep his window net down as it gave the "appearance of racing". I know I've had that happen.
Unfortunately, there was an incident that day caused by another Ferrari driver, and the result was the he had an off and flipped his NSX at an HPDE in my region at Pacific Raceways. During the roll-over, he stuck his hand out the drivers side, and it de-gloved his hand. As I understand it he will never practice surgery again.
He made the comment that if it had not been for the cage he would be dead. If just that one day he had taken the 10 seconds to put it up anyway and not listen to the organizer, his life would probably be very different today.
