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By Marty Smith, Turner Sports Interactive October 1, 2002
3:37 PM EDT (1937 GMT)
CONCORD, N.C. -- The Steel and Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) barrier, an energy-absorbing wall covering first introduced to NASCAR drivers during the Brickyard 400, will be in place on the inside retaining wall this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.
The barrier, which was stationed on the outside wall in each turn at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, has been installed in two 1,500-foot sections on the inside wall at Talladega, beginning at the exit of Turn 4 and extending some 3000 feet down the frontstretch, through the trioval and into Turn 1.
"Back earlier this year Dr. (Dean) Sicking's people from the University of Nebraska met at Talladega with Gary Nelson, some officials from NASCAR and the track, primarily looking to come up with a piece that they could test at Nebraska for a high banked track," said NASCAR vice president for communications Jim Hunter.
"In the process, the guys from Nebraska said there were places on inside of track that had critical angles that they could probably put something up. As a result, they put about a 3,000-foot section coming out of (Turn) 4 and entering Turn 1 into the trioval. That is in place as we speak."
Hunter said no barriers would be present on the outside wall Sunday, but did say that Sicking and his team of engineers would begin testing the high-banked version of the barrier at some point this fall, likely "within the next two weeks."
"We'll see how that goes, because we've got to figure out what car does on high-banks at high speeds when it hits that wall," Hunter said. "It's never been tested before.
"We'll get that data, probably do multiple crashes, and put that data in the computer model and go from there. Sort of like they did at Indy. They kept testing it until they said it was ready to go. That's next phase of SAFER wall."
Talladega spokesman Ken Patterson said the major issue with the high-banked portion is operational, i.e., repairing it post-impact.
"From what I understand, a big thing is that, if the wall withstood impact, repairing it during race wouldn't be easy," Patterson said. "With 33 degrees of banking, when you stand on that banking, you're three-and-a-half, four stories up from the infield. So you can't just drive a truck up there and fix it."
At this time, there are no plans to add SAFER barriers at Daytona International Speedway, speedway president Robin Brag said Monday.
"As with all of our racing events we look to direction from the sanctioning body," Brag said. "We have no plans for soft walls at Daytona at this time, but we're awaiting direction from NASCAR."
At Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a total of 4,240 feet of the outside wall is covered with the energy-absorbing barrier. Each turn of the speedway has 1,060 feet of barrier and another 60 feet of transition element approaching the actual energy-absorbing barrier.
Winston Cup driver Mike Wallace was the first stock car driver to hit the SAFER barrier and walked away unscathed, not to mention impressed with the barrier.
"I guess I'm glad I hit that because it hit a ton just then, so I'm glad it was there," Wallace said after his crash.
Kurt Busch, Geoffrey Bodine and Casey Atwood all also hit the barrier.
"It seemed like it did its job and I'm able to walk away from a 200 mph," Busch said. "I'm OK. It did its job. I knew it was going to be a hard hit and braced myself."
Kevin Forbes, director of engineering and construction for Indianapolis Motor Speedway, said the barrier reacted to the impacts as predicted.
"The barrier today behaved how we predicted," Forbes said. "We understood the damage the wall incurred in May when it was hit by the Indy Racing cars.
"We know the differences in the two types of race cars, and we anticipated the minimum damage from the impacts we saw today. There was one small tear in a tube from one of the impacts, but it didn't affect the integrity of the barrier."
3:37 PM EDT (1937 GMT)
CONCORD, N.C. -- The Steel and Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) barrier, an energy-absorbing wall covering first introduced to NASCAR drivers during the Brickyard 400, will be in place on the inside retaining wall this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.
The barrier, which was stationed on the outside wall in each turn at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, has been installed in two 1,500-foot sections on the inside wall at Talladega, beginning at the exit of Turn 4 and extending some 3000 feet down the frontstretch, through the trioval and into Turn 1.
"Back earlier this year Dr. (Dean) Sicking's people from the University of Nebraska met at Talladega with Gary Nelson, some officials from NASCAR and the track, primarily looking to come up with a piece that they could test at Nebraska for a high banked track," said NASCAR vice president for communications Jim Hunter.
"In the process, the guys from Nebraska said there were places on inside of track that had critical angles that they could probably put something up. As a result, they put about a 3,000-foot section coming out of (Turn) 4 and entering Turn 1 into the trioval. That is in place as we speak."
Hunter said no barriers would be present on the outside wall Sunday, but did say that Sicking and his team of engineers would begin testing the high-banked version of the barrier at some point this fall, likely "within the next two weeks."
"We'll see how that goes, because we've got to figure out what car does on high-banks at high speeds when it hits that wall," Hunter said. "It's never been tested before.
"We'll get that data, probably do multiple crashes, and put that data in the computer model and go from there. Sort of like they did at Indy. They kept testing it until they said it was ready to go. That's next phase of SAFER wall."
Talladega spokesman Ken Patterson said the major issue with the high-banked portion is operational, i.e., repairing it post-impact.
"From what I understand, a big thing is that, if the wall withstood impact, repairing it during race wouldn't be easy," Patterson said. "With 33 degrees of banking, when you stand on that banking, you're three-and-a-half, four stories up from the infield. So you can't just drive a truck up there and fix it."
At this time, there are no plans to add SAFER barriers at Daytona International Speedway, speedway president Robin Brag said Monday.
"As with all of our racing events we look to direction from the sanctioning body," Brag said. "We have no plans for soft walls at Daytona at this time, but we're awaiting direction from NASCAR."
At Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a total of 4,240 feet of the outside wall is covered with the energy-absorbing barrier. Each turn of the speedway has 1,060 feet of barrier and another 60 feet of transition element approaching the actual energy-absorbing barrier.
Winston Cup driver Mike Wallace was the first stock car driver to hit the SAFER barrier and walked away unscathed, not to mention impressed with the barrier.
"I guess I'm glad I hit that because it hit a ton just then, so I'm glad it was there," Wallace said after his crash.
Kurt Busch, Geoffrey Bodine and Casey Atwood all also hit the barrier.
"It seemed like it did its job and I'm able to walk away from a 200 mph," Busch said. "I'm OK. It did its job. I knew it was going to be a hard hit and braced myself."
Kevin Forbes, director of engineering and construction for Indianapolis Motor Speedway, said the barrier reacted to the impacts as predicted.
"The barrier today behaved how we predicted," Forbes said. "We understood the damage the wall incurred in May when it was hit by the Indy Racing cars.
"We know the differences in the two types of race cars, and we anticipated the minimum damage from the impacts we saw today. There was one small tear in a tube from one of the impacts, but it didn't affect the integrity of the barrier."
