Major Gen. Nick Justice (left) discusses removable steering wheels with his staff during an April 22 visit to the NASCAR Research and Development center in Concord, N.C. Justice said he sees a potential application of removable steering wheels in mil...
CONCORD, N.C. -- In search of measures that will better protect Soldiers in military vehicles, a team of U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command technologists went to the home of motor racing to see how NASCAR protects stock car race drivers.
NASCAR is the widely used acronym for the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc.
The group from RDECOM, led by the command team of Maj. Gen. Nick Justice and Command Sgt. Maj. Hector Marin, learned that NASCAR teams build their cars around the driver and that personal protective equipment - standardized, solid-fiber, impact resistant seats, six-point seat belts and helmets that are securely harnessed to limit head movement in a crash - is paramount to driver safety.
Mike Fisher, managing director of NASCAR research and development, welcomed the group and led them on a visual trip around the R&D Center, presenting a history of NASCAR safety and demonstrating how R&D has saved lives.
He showed the group the NASCAR Rules and Specifications from 1948; the year NASCAR began. In the four-page pamphlet, only minor references were made to vehicle safety, such as requiring doors be welded shut and convertibles run with the top up with safety hoops mounted to the frame.
Race teams today jump through a lot more safety hoops. The 2010 NASCAR-Sprint Cup Series Rule Book is 150 pages of comprehensive, specific rules and guidelines that address everything from NASCAR's substance abuse program to general engine requirements and much, much more.
The NASCAR R&D division was formed in 2002 and has made dramatic strides in driver safety, particularly since the death of Dale Earnhardt, Fisher said. Earnhardt, a NASCAR icon, died in a last-lap crash in the 2001 Daytona 500.
"About 65 percent of our safety effort is focused on protecting the driver," Fisher said, adding that about 25 percent of their effort is devoted to developing safer, energy absorbing crash barriers on the race track, and 10 percent to improving the race cars.
"I think, historically, we have done things in the complete reverse order," Justice said of Army vehicle development. "That means we're on the right track now and makes our visit here worthwhile."
Thomas Gideon, director of NASCAR safety initiatives, and John Patalak, the team's senior safety engineer, joined Fisher in a lively 45-minute discussion answering questions from the RDECOM team. Members of the Tank, Automotive Research and Development Center and the Army Research Laboratory were looking for specific measures to improve safety in all military vehicles and to incorporate in the ground combat vehicle currently being developed.
The presentation included footage of a twisting, flipping race car whose data was captured by the vehicle's "black box," an onboard crash recorder that provides immediate data to researchers. Data on crash severity can be used by R&D to determine the direction of impact and resulting decelerations, as well as creating a history for cars on various tracks.
Black box information is also used to investigate changes to car structure, seat structure, restraint systems and track wall, and is shared with all sanctioning bodies of motor sport.
"This has application for us today," Justice said to the group. "We need this to be able to communicate with our vehicles at all times."
The group was then taken to a display of NASCAR vehicles, with the No. 39 U.S. Army car, driven on race days by Ryan Newman, as the centerpiece. Newman is NASCAR's 2002 Rookie of the Year.
Justice quickly jumped in the driver's seat, nimbly twisting through the driver side window.
"You can't keep a North Carolina boy from getting in a race car! It's in our DNA," he said, smiling broadly.
The RDECOM team examined a skeleton car on display, closely studying the removable steering wheel that may one day become standard in Army vehicles. A quick-release steering wheel would ease exiting in a crash or roll-over scenario.
They visited the NASCAR testing bay, where Gideon and Fisher displayed the evolution of the crash recorder, and Patalak demonstrated the seat test protocol and explained how new seat designs keep drivers safe.
The last stop was the chassis evaluation bay, where every racing team's new chassis must be certified and meet strict conformance standards before being allowed on the race track.
"Each chassis gets an ultrasound scan," Fisher explained, adding that metal thickness must meet standards. Each approved chassis is marked in 10 locations with seals of certification so that if the vehicle is in a crash, the chassis inspection is part of the history.
"These guys are really focused on what they need to accomplish when that green flag goes down and they step on the gas and move out," Marin said. "So their focus is a little bit different than ours.
"I like their processes," he continued, "and some of the technologies they are applying to protect the driver - working from the driver out, building that cage to protect the driver and building everything around the driver -- those are some of my takeaways.
"I've seen some of the briefings at TARDEC and I know we're starting to think that way - looking at the war fighter first and working our way out from there, so we're definitely on the right track," Marin said.
<p align="center"><a href="http://flickriver.com/photos/rdecom/sets/72157623790855551/"><img src="http://flickriver.com/badge/user/set-72157623790855551/recent/shuffle/medium-horiz/ffffff/333333/34402227@N03.jpg" border="0" alt="RDECOM - View my 'RDECOM visits NASCAR R&D' set on Flickriver" title="RDECOM - View my 'RDECOM visits NASCAR R&D' set on Flickriver"/></a></p>
Members of the RDECOM team: Justice, Marin, Maj Shermoan Daiyaan, Aide-de-camp, Maj. R.J. Baker, ARL/WMPD/PD (Underbody); Dustin Gascho, TARDEC Quick Reaction Cell, Kari A. Drotleff, TARDEC - Ground System Survivability, Al Grein, TARDEC - CASSI-Analytics, Sgt. 1st Class James Ratliff, ARL Operations Sergeant, Ami Frydman, ARL Blast Protection Branch Team Leader, David Yoo, Communications Engineer, MITRE, Sgt. Maj. Matthew De Lay, RDECOM G-3, and Sgt 1st Class Amin Henriquez, RDECOM Operations Sergeant.
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