An additional thought about in-car fire extinguishers, especially back then (70's/early 80's)... At a lot of tracks a good reason to have removable extinguishers back then would be for a driver coming to the aid of another driver in a fire situation. Prior to the 70's, often the first person on the scene to help was another driver. (It still sometimes happens today.) This was often the case not just locally, but even at national events. If my memory from almost 50 years ago is correct, I think Ed Conner got out of his #39C with his fire extinguisher in hand to come to the aid of Frank Klem (sp?) whose #22 coupe had flipped between turns 1 & 2 at Flemington sometime (1974?), and we all watched in horror as flames totally engulfed the cockpit. Frank, who did suffer burns from the accident, somehow climbed out, but it seemed like forever... I think Ed was right there with a fire extinguisher at the side of the #22. Unfortunately, here it is 2023, and I still see some tracks on Flo from different parts of the country where it may still come down to one driver with an extinguisher stopping their car, and running to the aid of a fellow driver before the track's fire crew could possibly get there. Dylan Cisney (sp?) had a really bad fire at Port Royal last year where the wing kind of wrapped around the cage a little and I think it was Danny Dietrich and another driver that jumped out of their cars and because they were wearing firesuits, were able to help Dylan get out and help roll him on the ground and pat out the fire on him. Dylan's injuries were definitely less than they could have been. In a somewhat related story, I see that NJ is going to require on board self activating fire suppression systems on most racecars at somepoint this year. There is discussion on which types of cars have to have them...which cars have room for them... and I think there is also a question of available units due to supply issues.
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3-Wide 3/28/2023 9:19:16 PM