Safety
Richie Evans' 1985 death at Martinsville, along with other asphalt Modified fatalities such as Charlie Jarzombek (in 1987), Corky Cookman (1987), Tommy Druar (1989), Don Pratt (1989), and Tony Jankowiak (1990), led to questions about car rigidity with Tour Modifieds, and safety changes. In particular, straight frame rails were phased out, with new chassis required to have a step which could bend in hard impacts rather than passing the force to the driver. The death of Tom Baldwin, Sr. in 2004 led to more safety modifications, with HANS devices (or equivalent) and left side headrests becoming mandatory. For the 2008 season, rear bumpers have been shortened in response to the 2007 death of John Blewett III.
After a severed wheel caused a fatality at an Indy Racing League race, NASCAR in July 1999 required the Featherlite Modified Series teams (and eventually all NASCAR teams) to add steel cables as tethers linking each front spindle to the chassis, the steel cables were later replaced with marine rope which is stronger and weighs less.
Read more about this topic: Whelen Modified Tour
Famous quotes containing the word safety:
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—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
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—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“Perhaps in a book review it is not out of place to note that the safety of the state depends on cultivating the imagination.”
—Stephen Vizinczey (b. 1933)