Helmet requirements different at NJMP?

[harmug]

I just received a flyer from EMRA advertising up coming events and a note on the bottom caught my eye.

"NJMP runs under NJ Motor Vehicle Racetrack regulations. Helmets must meet 2005 Snell standards."

Will SCCA events run at the track have a similar restriction? EMRA in general, is in sync with SCCA regs and accepts Snell 2000 SA for their other race events. Does anyone know if we'll be affected when we run there? I hadn't planned on a new helmet this year, but I don't want any surprises when I get to the track.
thanks
mike

[racer27]

I saw this posted on the EMRA WEBSITE, by EMRA Chairman, Charlie Greenhaus (Noe minor edits by me):

Belts & Helmets at NJMP

1 Helmets. SNELL 2000 or newer will be OK as per EMRA rules. SA rated for Race, M or SA rated for TT and HPDE

2 Belts: We are back to EMRA old rules of 2 years for SFI and 5 years recognizing the printed expiration dates for FIA belts. Remember that SFI is 2 years from Manufacture NOT December of the expiration year.

This is a preliminary posting to get you all up to date. Waiting on written confirmation from NJMP...

[J.D. King]

Someone at EMRA has taken the liberty to interpret this to mean SA2005 only helmets. However, if you read on you will discover otherwise.



Here is the NJ State Police reg on helmets which can be found on page 11 of this document http://www.njsp.org/info/pdf/racing_regulations.pdf:

> NJAC 13:62-3.6 Helmets and eye protection
> (a) All drivers shall wear a properly secured helmet,
> which meets the most recent Snell Memorial Foundation
> Testing Standards M or SA, incorporated by reference
> herein, as may be amended and supplemented, which has
> not reached the expiration date established by the Snell Memorial
> Foundation at the time of the event. The standards are available from
> the Snell Memorial Foundation, 3628 Madison Avenue, Suite 11, North
> Highlands, CA 95660.
> (b) "M" (Motorcycle) Snell rated helmets may be used in
> all motorcycle events and automobile events where fi re ratings are
> not required.
> (c) "SA" (Auto Special Application) Snell fire-rated
> helmets shall be used in all other applications.

Here is the official Snell response:

Dear Mr. King,


Thanks for your call today regarding expiration of Snell Certification. We don't actually set expiration dates. Instead, we recommend that helmet owners routinely replace helmets after five years of use with the clock starting the first time the helmet is worn. Of course, race officials should not be willing to take a driver's word for how long his helmet's been in use so our advice to them is to accept helmets in reasonable condition certified to the current or immediately previous Snell standard. For auto racing, these would be SA2005 and SA2000. I checked through our web site documents and found the following paragraph

If you’re looking for a Snell certified helmet for use in organized competition, however, please consult the rule books and, maybe, the officials before making a purchase. We recommend that these organizations allow helmets certified to the appropriate, current or immediately previous Snell standard but this is purely a recommendation. Racing organizations set their own policies for helmets.


It was buried in one of the old HeadsUp newsletters. Here's a pointer to it: http://smf.org/headsup/pdf/headsup41.pdf

Thanks to you, I'll look into getting this particular item a little more prominence on the site

Thanks for your interest.
Ed Becker

The information contained in this communication may be confidential information intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by return e-mail at <info@smf.org> or by telephone at 916-331-5073 or by US postage at:

Snell Memorial Foundation
3628 Madison Ave, Suite 11
North Highlands, CA 95660

Thank you

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[John Nesbitt]

JD,

I think the confusion arises (at least for me) from the possibly-ambiguous wording in

"the most recent Snell Memorial Foundation Testing Standards M or SA, incorporated by reference herein, as may be amended and supplemented, which has not reached the expiration date established by the Snell Memorial Foundation at the time of the event. "


The 'most recent' could conflict with 'not reached the expiration date'.

Has anyone gone to the NJ State Police, and asked them how they interpret this regulation?

John

[J.D. King]

I've been informed that the NJMP will post updates to the NJ State racing regs as they are updated.
They are working on a few things.

John, you should read this as "Snell helmets never expire" so break out that old 1985 helmet and have a blast. :P I kid you, of course.

Amibiguity is actually good sometimes. It is a sorry shame that lawyers or police need be involved in racing at all. You race, it is dangerous.............Insurance? Liability? c'mon people.

[Tom Valet]

Amibiguity is actually good sometimes. It is a sorry shame that lawyers or police need be involved in racing at all. You race, it is dangerous.............Insurance? Liability? c'mon people.

JD, with me being a lawyer and all, you might think I would disagree with your comment, but in fact I agree 100%. Lawyers and lawsuits have their place, but not in cases of obviously dangerous activities. I remember being in law school when the Mark Donohue case was tried against Goodyear and thinking how ridiculous is that, the man was killed doing what he loved and was obviously aware of the danger, including the risk that a tire could fail at high speed for a hundred reasons, and yet his family sued.

Take care, hope to see you at the track soon.

Tom

[rickb99]

Does this mean we can now turn to the New Jersey State legislature for establishing race safety regulations? Will they replace FIA and SFI?

Wonder what they'll come up with concerning the seat belt expiration dates? But of course, then they would have to apply it to street cars too. Think of the boom in seat belt sales if ALL New Jersey drivers had to replace their seat belts every 2 years. Where's my stock brokers phone number? Hey, buy 5,000 shares of Simpson please!

Wait that would lead to N.J. land fills over flowing with nylon webbing. Who's the big company in nylon recycling??

P.S.
Yes Tom, the entire racing community was very sadden'd by the decision to go ahead with the law suit by Donohue's wife and estate I do believe the suit was against Goodyear AND Bell (for helmet failure even though there's NO way the helmet could have survived). That lead to the on going improvements in helmets and the updating of the 'standards' on a routine basis.

[J.D. King]

Thanks Tom. You know my sarcasm and could see my tongue firmly in cheek. Of course lawyers and police should participate in racing, from the cockpit side of things

I hope you have at least one of the NJMP races on your schedule for 2008.

[racer27]

This was also in the NJMP rulebook:

§13:62-3.11 Clothing requirements

... (b) During races, crew members working in the hot pit shall wear suits of at least one layer of fire retardant material (two layers preferred)...

Does that mean we need to change uniforms from previously used long pants, closed shoes to a fire suit when chcking tire temps, false gridding, etc? No-one is going to be doing any re-fueling.

I would guess having crew wear fireproof undergarments (Nomex/carbon-X) under jeans would be in compliance...

[J.D. King]

The rules are being re-written and updated as we go along.
You can tell that nobody from SCCA or any road race sanctioning body was contacted when the state decided to update their racing regs.

I'd wait until the supps for your particular race come out before running off to buy new helmets and nomex for everyone in your crew.

[T644HU05]

this is sad....

[racer27]

I'd wait until the supps for your particular race come out before running off to buy new helmets and nomex for everyone in your crew.

Who said anything about buying new underwear for the crew? That eats into the Atlantic Cty Casino Budget - 31 minutes away! Crew Cheif (Mssr Fanelli) gets the pleasure of squeezing into my old underwear - LOL

In all seriousness, I'm looking forward to running at this facility. Should be first rate. I'm only doing 3 events in 2008 and at least one of them will be at this track (2 races, 3 days, July 11, 12, 13 with www.FormulaProRacing,org . Possibly a second event in Oct with RCCA.

[anthonywill3]

all I can say is welcome to the garden state!

[Peter Horvath]

I saw this posted on the EMRA WEBSITE, by EMRA Chairman, Charlie Greenhaus (Noe minor edits by me):

Belts & Helmets at NJMP

1 Helmets. SNELL 2000 or newer will be OK as per EMRA rules. SA rated for Race, M or SA rated for TT and HPDE

2 Belts: We are back to EMRA old rules of 2 years for SFI and 5 years recognizing the printed expiration dates for FIA belts. Remember that SFI is 2 years from Manufacture NOT December of the expiration year.

This is a preliminary posting to get you all up to date. Waiting on written confirmation from NJMP...

Now if I want to enter a car with EMRA after June (the belts in my car are dated 6/06), the belts will be expired. With the SCCA they're good all year.

If I want to go to Watkins Glen with EMRA on October, like we did last year, I have to buy new belts in September. With the SCCA I can wait until January or February of next year.

[racer27]

Peter - I'd suggest snding am email to EMRA Chief of Tech, as I believe thier rules are normaly in line with SCCA. You should be able to find the proper email addy here... www.emraracing.org. Be great to see you out wiht FPR/EMRA @ NJMP this season.

[AlanVDW]

Most of us in the New York/North East area will race at tracks that are regulated by the state goverment they each reside in. Lime Rock with Conneticuit DOT, and New Jersey with the NJSP. Are there any other states that preside over racing?

[EACIII]

I went to a presentation and facility tour of NJMP today. I asked the question about helmets and we were told that SA 2000 helmets will be acceptable. The State of NJ also requires all race cars to have fuel cells and roll bars. This will not effect us except for some vintage folks. But not sure how this will effect SCCA classes like SS and IT as a lot of them do not have cells.

After the presentation we got a tour of the facility (great big paddock with plenty of plug ins) and then were to get in vans and be driven part way around the Lightning course as it is paved (binder course). There was a change and we were told to get in our cars for a drive around following a lead car. From what I could tell at 22 mph in the Caddy it should be a great drivers course. Elevation changes, sweeping high speed corners, runoff room, etc. The light bulb has banking (told 15 dergrees), so it should be a blast. The track really seemed to flow well.

It looks like it will be a first class place and the staff was really accomadating. Good thing I didn't bring my check book or I would have put a deposit down on a Villa.

Oh, from southern Conn. it was 200 miles and took 3 hours, of course that was not towing a trailer.


Ed

[Richard Hybels]

I bought the Carbon Fiber HJC helmet a couple of weeks ago that lists for $899 and I love it.
HJC sells a carbon Fiber M/C helmet for $379 that says "DOT 218 and Snell M2005." Why can't it be used for racing?
Sorry if it's a dumb question
\
Hybels

[John Nesbitt]

The SCCA requires one the following certifications (from GCR 9.3.19.B):

"Crash helmets approved by the Snell Foundation with Snell sticker
2000 or later Special Application (SA2000), or by the SFI with a
SFI Sticker 31.1a for open faced helmets and a SFI sticker 31.2a
for closed faced (if purchased prior to 12/31/04), SFI 31.1 (if
purchased after 1/1/05), or by the FIA standard 8860-2004."


The relevant Snell certifications are SA2000 or SA2005.

[Phil Green]

I bought the Carbon Fiber HJC helmet a couple of weeks ago that lists for $899 and I love it.
HJC sells a carbon Fiber M/C helmet for $379 that says "DOT 218 and Snell M2005." Why can't it be used for racing?
Sorry if it's a dumb question
\
Hybels

There's a couple different things between an SA (Special Application - Car racing) and an M (Motorcycle) rated helmet. One is field of view, but the most important is nomex lining.

In the Feb '08 issue of Circle Track (yeah, I know...but it can be interesting reading), on page 56 there is an article comparing M and SA helmets. They lit the M helmet's lining on fire. "The liner caught flame immediately after the lighter was introduced. The elapsed time between ignition and full involvement is a mere six seconds - startling to say the least."

There's a pic of the flaming helmet - two-foot flames coming from the shield opening - in the current issue in the letters section.

This would be enough for me to not want to think about it.