Softwalls at Waltkins Glen

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Nascar24rainbow

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What does everyone think about the Softwalls at Walkin Glen? I have seen 2 pretty bad crashes right into those walls now and both drivers got out of the car uninjured ( and Jimmie Johnson even jumped on top of his car). I think NASCAR should move a little bit quicker on gettin soft walls (like at the Glen) or even the SAFER walls (like at Indy) and install them at more tracks.
 
those walls at the Glen is just huge foam blocks and been there for a while now. Those whould not work on most ovals but is kinda what the SAFER wall is about since it has foam behind the steel. I think we will start seeing NASCAR's approval at other tarcks befor to long.
 
Well unfourtuanatley those soft walls were just HUGE pieces of foam. They wouldnt work at an oval because of their larget size. But they do work very well at The road courses, and I believe better than the Soft walls at INDY.
 
Foam has been used on road courses for quite some time......they used to be tires. The tires were replaced shortly after the JD McDuffie thing. The tires actually contributed to JD's death. Nascar is correct in going slow on this whole "soft wall" thing.
 
This article is a few days old from a site called the crewchiefsclub, but Larry gives a good explanation of some the safety features at the Glen.

Watkins Glen isn't 'soft' on safety
By: Larry McReynolds
August 8, 2002

Obviously, we can’t have "soft wall" barriers in place for this weekend’s race at Watkins Glen, but the road course has taken steps toward safer racing in the 11 years that have passed since driver J.D. McDuffie's death at the Glen.

Back in 1991, we entered turn 9 at about 170 to 180 miles per hour, and if you missed that corner, it could be a very costly mistake. McDuffie was killed when he crashed in this corner. So to prevent similar accidents, track officials have added the Inner Loop turns 5 through 8, which are linked together to slow cars down before turn 9.

Concrete, foam slow, lessen impact of crashes
The Glen used to have problems keeping the asphalt on the track so they added concrete in the groove on the straight.

Also, they have some foam barriers. Most of the barriers around this track are the old-style guardrails, like the one Steve Park hit at Pocono a couple of weeks ago. They have some give to them, but they can tear up a racecar. In some of the 90-degree corners foam serves as a buffer in front of the guardrails so if a driver doesn’t make it in the turn, he won’t tear up his car. The foam will cushion his spin.

In some areas where cars can go off the track at a high rate of speed, the track has pea gravel pits, which slow the cars down dramatically and safely. I was first exposed to gravel pits in Suzuka, Japan when we held exhibition races there in 1996 and 1997.

Since we race in rain or shine at road courses, there are special safety considerations this week. Goodyear has come up with a rain tire for the road courses. The only time we’ve actually had to use these tires was in Japan. There are a few more additions to the cars when we race in potential rain conditions. We have to have a windshield wiper and a rear brake light in the middle of the back window. There's also a defogging system for the front windshield. We’ve never actually had to use these items in a points race, but we do go to Watkins Glen knowing that we will qualify and race regardless of the weather.


Safety fever: Catch it!
Watkins Glen has taken steps toward safer racing, and after the successful debut of soft walls at Indianapolis, between now and the 2003 season, many tracks should follow the lead of these trailblazers and install soft walls. I would hope that soft walls could be in place for the final race of this season at Homestead, where you enter the corner with simply no banking to hold the car.

When we saw how hard Kurt Busch and Geoffrey Bodine hit these walls at Indy, it was pretty clear that they can do the job with a 3400-pound car, and it barely took any time to make repairs to the barriers after being hit.
 
Those big blocks have foam have always been a good idea since they started using them at Watkins Glen. Even with the sand trap to slow him down, Kenny Wallace still would have hit the barrier pretty hard, but thanks to those foam blocks he was able to walk away uninjured.

Jimmie Johnson had a similar wreck about three years ago in what I believe was the same turn at Watkins Glen. Jimmie Johnson, in his #92 Alltell Busch car, lost his breaks and ended up flying through the sand trap and hitting the barriers head on. It was a spectacular wreck, and everyone was glad to see him get out of his car and wave to the crowd that he was alright.

These sort of blocks wouldn't really work on high speed oval tracks, as the foam blocks are messy and would have to cleaned up and replaced every time there was a wreck. It would also be difficult to say how the foam would hold up against a car sliding up into them as opposed to the head on collisions they are used to prevent on the road courses.
 
Now we know what ISC did with all the foam coolers they wouldn't let the fans bring into their tracks. LOL
 
So that is where my $1.99 Wal-Mart special cooler went!! "Hey Kenny, you owe me that Bud Light I had in that cooler!!:ROFLMFAO:
 
You know those little go-cart tracks at your family game parks, those walls are good. They have a flexible medal strip on the outside and have tires on the inside. Maybe that's the same as the current "soft walls", I don't know what they are made of.
 
Those GO cart walls could never hold up to a 200 mph wreck in NASCAR. The Soft walls in Nascar, are made of hollow steel tubing surrounded in a light cement...I believe. As for what is in between...It is several pieces of styrofoam lined up together. Not the prettiest thing in the world but hopefully it does its job.
 
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